[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6057 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6057
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit preleasing,
leasing, and related activities in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea
Planning Areas unless certain conditions are met.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 14, 2008
Mr. Inslee (for himself and Mr. Hinchey) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit preleasing,
leasing, and related activities in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea
Planning Areas unless certain conditions are met.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Polar Bear Seas Protection Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Americans cherish healthy oceans and wildlife that
marine ecosystems support, and feel a strong moral
responsibility to protect these resources for the benefit of
current and future generations.
(2) The marine ecosystems and coastal habitats of the
Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, along Alaska's northern and
northwestern shores, provide habitat for a large array of
wildlife, including endangered bowhead whales, beluga whales,
polar bears, threatened spectacled eiders, threatened Steller's
eiders, walrus, seals, and fish.
(3) These ecosystems and wildlife they support are vital to
the survival of the subsistence cultures of the Alaska Native
peoples of the North Slope and have been for thousands upon
thousands of years.
(4) There is a wide consensus among scientists that the
Arctic is undergoing dramatic changes due to climate change,
and that these changes are affecting vital sea ice habitat for
a number of species, including polar bears, walrus, and seals.
(5) In January 2007, the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service proposed listing the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) as a
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
The polar bear depends on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals,
its primary food, and projected loss of sea ice due to global
warming was believed to jeopardize polar bears throughout their
range.
(6) On January 9, 2008, the Department of the Interior
missed the legal deadline to make a final rule on whether to
provide Endangered Species Act of 1973 protections to the polar
bear.
(7) On February 6, 2008, the Department of the Interior
moved forward with oil and gas leasing in the Chukchi Sea Lease
Sale 193 area, which contains about 29.4 million acres offshore
Alaska from north of Point Barrow to northwest of Cape
Lisburne, which is polar bear habitat.
(8) On April 19, 2008, a United States District Court Judge
ruled that the Department of the Interior must make a decision
on whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species
Act of 1973 by May 15, 2008.
(9) In September 2007, the United States Geological Survey
issued a series of reports that projected changes in future sea
ice conditions, if realized, will result in loss of
approximately \2/3\ of the world's current polar bear
population by the middle of the 21st century and extirpation of
polar bears in Alaska. The agency also concluded that because
the observed trajectory of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be
underestimated by currently available models, this assessment
of future polar bear status may be conservative.
(10) While the major threat to polar bears is global
warming, resulting from continuing emissions of green house
gases, potential oil and gas development in the Beaufort and
Chukchi Seas poses additional risks to polar bears and other
marine life in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
(11) There is currently no effective means to recover
spilled oil in the harsh environment of the Beaufort and
Chukchi Seas, especially during periods of solid and broken
ice.
(12) The Minerals Management Service's 2007-2012 OCS
leasing plan anticipates offering 40 million acres of the
Chukchi Sea for lease and expanding leasing in the Beaufort Sea
to 33 million acres. All of this area overlaps with vital polar
bear habitat.
(13) In the environmental impact statement for the first of
five lease sales planned for the current 5-year OCS leasing
plan in the Arctic Ocean, Lease Sale 193 in the Chukchi Sea,
the Minerals Management Service concludes that the effects of a
large oil spill, particularly during the broken-ice period,
could pose significant risks to the polar bear population, and
that a large oil spill could have significant impacts on other
marine mammals including whales and walruses. In the same
document the agency states that there was a lack of information
on marine mammal ecology, and habitat use.
(14) In addition, onshore industrial development activities
necessary to support offshore oil and gas development can
damage important habitat and cause harmful disturbance of
denning polar bears, and other wildlife.
(15) Because of the threats oil and gas development poses
to subsistence resources, public health, and survival of their
culture, tribal governments, including the Native Village of
Point Hope, the Native Village of Barrow, the Inupiat Community
of the Arctic Slope, and the Alaska Intertribal Council, have
expressed opposition to offshore oil and gas development in the
Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON LEASING IN BEAUFORT AND CHUKCHI SEA PLANNING
AREAS.
Section 8 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1337)
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(q) Prohibition on Leasing in Beaufort and Chukchi Sea Planning
Areas.--
``(1) The Secretary shall not offer for or approve leasing,
preleasing, or any related activity (including approving any
seismic activity, offering any new lease, or approving an
exploration or development plan) within any area of the Chukchi
or Beaufort Sea marine and coastal ecosystems until-
``(A) the National Research Council--
``(i) identifies missing information on the
composition, distribution, status and ecology
of the living marine resources in the Beaufort
and Chukchi Sea marine and coastal ecosystems
that--
``(I) focuses on the changes caused
and likely to be caused by climate
changes; and
``(II) supports the establishment
of baseline information and the
determination of the potential impacts,
including cumulative impacts, of all
oil- and gas-related activities on
plant and animal species, marine and
coastal environments, and Alaskan
Native communities and their
subsistence activities;
``(ii) reports on the adequacy of ongoing
and completed environmental, public health, and
cultural studies (including ongoing and
completed studies conducted by the Alaska
environmental studies program of the Minerals
Management Service) in providing information
described in clause (i); and
``(iii) submits to Congress a report that--
``(I) identifies missing
information;
``(II) evaluates the adequacy of
ongoing and completed studies; and
``(III) makes recommendations on
any additional studies or research that
are required to provide missing
information identified pursuant to
clause (i);
``(B)(i) the polar bear is listed as an endangered
species or a threatened species under the Endangered
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and
critical habitat is designated for the species; or
``(ii) the Secretary publishes a
determination that such a listing is not
warranted;
``(C) the Secretary--
``(i) performs an oil spill response gap
analysis for proposed and existing arctic oil
operations;
``(ii)(I) using a public process that
includes consultation with local governments,
tribal governments, natural resource managers,
and other stakeholders, sets a standard
required of lessees to ensure that at least 85
percent of the total volume of spilled oil can
be recovered mechanically and removed from the
environment within 30 days after the initial
release in any ice condition or season of the
year;
``(II) demonstrates that the 85 percent
recovery standard can be achieved prior to
issuing any leases, and prior to approving any
seismic exploration, exploration plans, or
development and production plans; and
``(III) requires that the oil spill
response gap for activities under each lease
ensures 85 percent oil recovery in any given
ice condition or season of the year;
``(iii) implements a procedure to close
areas in whole or seasonally to oil and gas
activity because of the existence of a response
gap; and
``(iv) establishes requirements for
installing, operating, and maintaining oil
spill prevention systems, or institutes
operating restrictions to improve safety and
minimize spill risks; and
``(D) the Secretary determines that--
``(i) all recommendations submitted by the
National Research Council report under
subparagraph (A)(iii)(III) are implemented;
``(ii) oil and gas exploration and
development activities can be conducted in the
Beaufort and Chukchi Sea Planning Areas without
posing a risk of substantial adverse impact to
wildlife, or wildlife habitat and subsistence;
and
``(iii) any mitigation measures necessary
to avoid such risks are identified and the
efficacy of the measures is established.
``(2) In this subsection:
``(A) The term `response gap' means a period of
time during which the oil spill recovery standard
established pursuant to paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(I) cannot
be achieved.
``(B) The term `response gap analysis' means--
``(i) a calculation of the response
operating limits of spill response systems for
a set of environmental factors, such as wind,
sea state, sea ice, and visibility, and an
analysis of the frequency, duration, and timing
of conditions that would limit a response in a
particular location, including an assessment of
local response capabilities and oil spill
contingency plans, using a methodology that
accounts for the cumulative interplay between
factors that would cause two or more variables
that are individually within the system's
limits to exceed those limits when combined;
``(ii) based on such calculation, an
assessment of the frequency, duration, and
timing of occurrence of one or more limiting
factors or limiting combinations that may
preclude achieving the oil spill recovery
standard established pursuant to paragraph
(1)(C)(ii)(I) using either modeled or
historical environmental and climate data for a
given location or area; and
``(iii) based on such calculation and
assessment, a quantification of the percentage
of time during which local conditions exceed
the demonstrated limits of spill response
systems to achieve achieving the oil spill
recovery standard established pursuant to
paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(I).''.
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