Court cancels offshore drilling program
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the Bush administration did not properly study the environmental impact of expanding oil and gas drilling off the Alaska coast and canceled a program to find new reserves.
A three-judge panel in Washington found that the Bush-era Interior Department failed to consider the effect on the environment and marine life before it began the process in August 2005 to expand an oil and gas leasing program in the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas.
It wasn't clear whether the decision applies to other areas of the same expanded offshore drilling program, including tracks in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Atlantic Coast.
Attorneys for the environmentalists and the industry said they think it would cancel the entire program, not just the Arctic region. Officials at the Interior Department could not immediately answer the question.
The appeals court ordered the Interior Department, now run by President Obama's appointee Ken Salazar, to analyze the areas to determine environmental risks and potential damage before moving ahead with the program.
The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's trade association which joined the lawsuit to defend the program, said yesterday that it's reviewing the implications. 