Washington (Platts)--31Jan2008

A coalition of 13 environmental and Alaska native groups filed suit
Thursday in federal court challenging the Interior Department's decision to
hold a lease sale in the Chukchi Sea, scheduled for February 6.

The suit, filed in US District Court for the District of Alaska, alleges
that the decision violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the
Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Proposed Lease Sale No. 193, covering 29.4 million acres, would be the
first in the Chukchi Sea since 1991. It is the first of three planned in the
Chukchi Sea under the current five-year program (2007-2012) of Interior's
Mineral Management Service. There are currently no active leases in the area.

The suit contends that the final Environmental Impact Statement covering
the proposed sale "does not adequately analyze and present the impact to the
environment and human activities" of the sale, fails to "adequately analyze
the impact of the lease sale in the context of global warming," understates
the potential impacts of oil and gas development by analyzing a limited
development scenario; understates the risk of an oil spill; and that the
analysis of the effects of seismic surveying "is misleading."

The plaintiffs include the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Inupiat
Community of the Arctic Slope, Natural Resources Defense Council, National
Audubon Society and Point Hope Native Village.

Because of "critical information gaps," the EIS "does not describe the
full potential of the lease sale on the Chukchi Sea environment or the
wildlife that inhabit the sea and upon which Alaskan communities along the sea
depend for their culture and physical well-being," the suit said.

The suit raises concern about the fate of a number of species protected
by the Endangered Species Act, and polar bears that inhabit the region. "These
species will experience cumulative effects from the proposed oil and gas
activity in the Chukchi Sea, including effects from a potential shore base and
a potential overland pipeline from the Chukchi Sea," the suit said.

--Gerald Karey, gerry_karey@platts.com