The Center for Biological Diversity has announced it is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management over its failure to protect polar bears from the effects of Arctic oil exploration.
The project in question is 88 Energy’s Peregrine Exploration Program and will take place almost year-round for five years. While the project is currently underway, it will need the approval of the Biden administration to drill any new wells.
The project will involve the construction of airstrips and ice roads in a pristine environment that is currently free from oil exploration. According to a center’s senior attorney Kristen Monsell:
“Every new oil well in the Arctic is another step toward the polar bear’s extinction. [President] Biden should be phasing out oil and gas activity in the Arctic, not flouting key environmental laws to let oil companies search and drill for more oil in this beautiful, increasingly fragile ecosystem.”
Monsell added:
“Polar bears shouldn’t have to suffer from yet more noisy, harmful oil drilling. Letting the oil industry ramp up drilling is also fundamentally inconsistent with addressing the climate crisis. Arctic drilling has got to go.”
