ALFA Members,
Earlier this year, the Trump Administration released the 2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program (DPP). The DDP proposes to offer all areas of the Alaska coastline from the Beaufort Sea to Southeast Alaska for oil and gas leasing, with the exception of Bristol Bay. The DPP is the first stage of the OCS leasing process for regulating offshore oil and gas activities, and it determines which areas will be made available for leasing and establish a sale schedule.
COMMENTS on the areas offered for lease are open until MARCH 9, 2018. The Department of the Interior needs to hear from fishermen about risking Alaska’s renewable permanent fund—our incredible fisheries—for non-renewable oil. Please note that Alaska’s Governor and Congressional delegation have called for OCS oil exploration to be limited to Cook Inlet and the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea; they have also specifically asked that the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska be removed from further oil and gas leasing consideration. Fishermen need to support the delegations’ ask relative to the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska by submitting comments to the Secretary of Interior before the March 9th deadline.
Below is a draft letter to inform your comments.
You can send comments to by regular mail to:
Ms. Kelly Hammerle, Chief
National Oil and Gas Leasing Program Development and Coordination Branch, Leasing Division
Office of Strategic Resources, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
45600 Woodland Road, Sterling, VA
20166-9216
You can also submit comments on the Internet through the Regulations.gov web portal by navigating to http://www.regulations.gov and under the Search tab, type in Docket ID: BOEM-2017-0074 to submit comments.
Sample Letter:
Dear Secretary Zinke,
I participate in Alaska salmon, halibut and/or sablefish fisheries. Collectively, these fisheries are worth over half a billion dollars a year in ex-vessel value alone.
I request that you remove all potential sales in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska planning areas from the Draft Proposed Program. The Alaska planning areas in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska encompass some of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems and together form the breadbasket of Alaska’s fisheries. Coastal Alaska communities depend on the fishery resources contained in these ecosystems. Overall, coastal communities in Alaska account for 58 percent of all seafood landings and 29 percent of all seafood value harvested in the United States. In fact, Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea fishing ports in the proposed lease sale planning areas are eleven of the top thirty ports in the United States in terms of both fishery value and volume.
Offshore oil and gas development would increase noise, water and air pollution, vessel traffic, and threaten the clean waters and healthy ecosystems essential for fish production and marketing of Alaska’s fish.
Do not place our fisheries and our communities at risk. Remove all potential sales in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea from any further consideration of oil and gas development.
Sincerely,
*YOUR NAME HERE*
Click here to view a letter submitted by ALFA members pertaining to offshore oil & gas drilling in Alaska.