unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/06/89)
ALASKA LOSES ITS BID TO STOP FEDERAL OFF-SHORE LEASING
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October 3, 1989
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Supreme Court declined Monday to review
a lower court ruling permitting the government's sale of oil and
gas leases in Alaska's Bristol Bay, striking a blow to
environmentalists who fear a repeat of the Exxon Valdez oil
spill.
Having lost a series of legal battles to stop the leasing of
more than 5.6 million acres of water off the Alaska coast, Alaska
Gov. Steve Cowper, fishers and a handful of environmental
groups sought high court review, saying the development of oil
and gas reserves and the inevitability of oil spills threatens
the "crown jewel" of Alaska's renewable resources.
The court refused to hear the case, which focuses primarily on
the balance of state and federal governments' roles in deciding
whether to sell off-shore oil and gas leases.
Cowper's lawyers say the area's fisheries produce more than $1
billion annually and employ more than 10,000 people and that the
region has the greatest concentration of birds, fish and marine
mammals found anywhere in the North American continent.
Cowper argues that the interior secretary in 1985 failed to give
enough consideration to his recommendations on the oil and gas
leases, as required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
He also contends the secretary's decision to reject his
alternative suggestions for the leases was "arbitrary and
capricious," and that his decision to go ahead with the sales was
based, in part, on flawed studies that minimized the impact of
spills.
Lawyers for the government say they gave proper consideration to
Cowper's recommendations and say the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals correctly found that the Shelf Lands Act grants the
secretary of interior, not the governor, "the responsibility to
determine whether the recommendations strike a reasonable
balance" between the national interest and the interest of
Alaskan residents.
Cowper argues the lower court should have found that Congress
intended for shared responsibility in striking that balance.
"Instead (the 9th Circuit) effectively held that the secretary
has plenary decision-making power and may with impunity ignore
the recommendations of an affected state's governor," Cowper
says.
He says the grounding of the Exxon Valdez in Prince William
Sound last March, which resulted in the United States's largest
oil spill, is evidence of the "devastating impact" of oil on
biological resources.
He said such a spill in Bristol Bay -- a more remote area
subjected to severe weather -- would be even more problematic to
clean up.
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