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Cook Inletkeeper Energy
Campaign
Oil & Gas
BACKGROUND
The Cook
Inlet region is generally regarded as the birthplace of
commercial oil and gas production in Alaska, with the discovery
of oil in the Swanson River oil field in 1957 providing an
important catalyst for Alaska statehood in 1959. Since then,
industry has produced over 1.4 billion barrels of oil, 5
trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and provided important tax
and other revenues for local and state governments. While the
dollar value of oil and gas production is readily recognized by
corporate managers and politicians, however, the true costs of
oil and gas production and use are not. For example, climate
scientists now agree that the combustion of carbon-based fuels,
such as oil and gas, is accelerating warming trends, especially
in Southcentral Alaska, where a massive spruce bark beetle
epidemic hastened by warming trends has destroyed over 2 million
acres of forest, and where salmon streams on the Kenai Peninsula
routinely violate temperature standards set to protect fish.
Furthermore, because corporate managers have a fiduciary duty to
maximize their profits, they often push the true costs of
production and transportation onto the public, instead of
assuming these costs and possibly reducing profit margins. For
example, Cook Inlet is the only coastal waterbody in the nation
where oil and gas corporations legally dump up to 2 billion
gallons of toxic waste in rich fisheries each year, because it
is cheaper to dump these wastes into our publicly-owned
waterbodies rather than properly treating them. Similarly, Cook
Inlet is the only major port in the western hemisphere where
laden oil tankers routinely transit notoriously rough and icy
waters without the aid of adequately equipped tug vessels. The
grounding of the oil tanker Seabulk Pride in February
2006 – laden with nearly 5 million gallons of product – in the
heart of Cook Inlet’s salmon fisheries, highlights the risks to
public resources posed by corporate decisionmaking.
Inletkeeper’s history derives from oil and gas operations in
Cook Inlet. In 1994, a group of citizens – concerned about
rapid changes to Cook Inlet wrought largely by oil and gas
development – gathered in Homer, Alaska, to form Cook
Inletkeeper. The next year, Trustees for Alaska and other
conservation groups sued Cook Inlet oil and gas operators for
thousands of violations of the federal Clean Water Act. Rather
than risk potentially massive fines and negative public
attention in a prolonged legal battle, Unocal, Shell and
Marathon settled the lawsuit, and directed funds to start-up
Inletkeeper. Since then, Inletkeeper has been a vigilant
watchdog, ensuring operators obey the law, and pressing for
regulatory changes to protect Cook Inlet fisheries and the
people and communities they support.
Today, the
Cook Inlet oil and gas industry continues to enjoy public
subsidies – in the form of lax permits and rules – found nowhere
else in the U.S. As a result, Inletkeeper maintains a
meaningful presence in all major incidents and proceedings that
involve oil and gas impacts to public water, fish and wildlife
resources.
INLETKEEPER’S SOLUTIONS
Inletkeeper
recognizes the important role oil and gas plays in our economies
and way of life, and that weaning ourselves from our dwindling
fossil fuel resources will take time. But it’s critical to
start transitioning away from oil and gas consumption now, and
to embrace new technologies around our boundless wind, tidal,
wave and geothermal potentials, so we can produce cleaner
renewable energy and long term jobs for current and future
generations. As a result, Inletkeeper is working to stop or
reduce oil and gas pollution, and to prompt efforts to pursue
new technologies that don’t rely on carbon combustion. For more
information on Inletkeeper’s work, see the following links:
Leasing &
Exploration
Production
& Processing
Transportation
Decommissioning & Removal
TAKE
ACTION
·
Write to your
elected official
·
Write a letter to
the editor
·
Sign-up for action
alerts on breaking news
·
Forward this page
to a friend
·
Check back here
for updates
·
Join Inletkeeper!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & LINKS (links open in new window)
Alaska Division of Oil & Gas – detailed information on
leasing, exploration and production in Cook Inlet and elsewhere.
Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission – drilling and well
data and statistics
Energy Bulletin – Peak Oil – learn about finite oil reserves
and what it means for you.
EPA Underground Injection Control – Information on
subsurface waste disposal.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Oil & Gas Web Site – An
industry-slanted web site with corporate links and historical
information
Oil & Gas Accountability Project – information on coalbed
methane, toxics, groundwater pollution.
Mat Su Coal Bed Methane – Information on coalbed methane
development in Alaska’s fastest-growing region.
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