Evidence of the damage from just one of the thousands of drilling fields on the Allegheny National Forest. Photo © Bill Belitskus

STOP RECKLESS OIL & GAS DRILLING

The Spring 2007 issue of Forest Magazine is devoted to the most important environmental threat of this or any generation: global warming. We at FSEEE have a profound concern about this issue. Our country’s addiction to fossil fuels will unravel the essential fabric and intrinsic value of the ecosystems upon which we depend.

The Bush Administration has been accused of failing to take action on global warming. Nothing could be further from the truth. The administration has a comprehensive plan for global warming: they plan to make it worse by accelerating the production and consumption of fossil fuels. In addition to maintaining the terribly destructive relationships with oil producing states in the Middle East, the administration’s plan to satisfy our oil fix takes aim squarely at the national forests in our backyards.

We need your help to stop the Bush Administration from turning our national forests into unregulated oil fields.

The administration’s 2005 Energy Bill is a green light for oil and gas companies to exploit public lands. It directs the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to work together to expedite development of new oil and gas resources, regardless of environmental consequences. It exempts much oil and gas exploration from the Clean Water Act. It provides for tens of thousands of acres of federal forest to be cleared to create new power transmission cables. And it gives out $85 billion worth of subsidies that will make previously uneconomic drilling in the backcountry profitable for big oil and gas companies.

WHAT WILL THIS MEAN FOR NATIONAL FORESTS?

The effects are already dramatically evident on the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania, which currently has more than 8,000 active oil and gas wells.

Under a new forest management plan set to be released next month, an additional 7,500 wells would be drilled, clearing more than 10,000 acres of forest and building 1,600 miles of road. Requirements to protect sensitive soils and water quality, once mandatory, are now optional.

Incredibly, the Forest Service has determined that oil and gas drilling is not a “significant issue” for the Allegheny National Forest Plan.

WHAT OTHER FORESTS WILL BE AFFECTED?

Let us introduce you to the national forests of southern Mississippi—the DeSoto, Homochito and Bienville. They rarely grace nature calendars, but they are lands of striking beauty—and biodiversity. Certain types of long-leaf pine forests here are among the rarest forest types in North America, and provide habitat for endangered species like the red-cockaded woodpecker and the gopher tortoise.

Oil and gas companies have recently leased almost 30,000 acres for oil and gas drilling on these National Forests—with absolutely no environmental review whatsoever.

The environmental impacts will be extreme and irreversible. Spills and leakages will happen, and when they do they will introduce toxins like benzene, toluene and xylene into forest streams. Drilling pads, access roads, pipelines, pumping stations and processing plants will destroy native vegetation and displace wildlife. Drilling wastes, including volatile organic compounds, oils and biocides will also contaminate sensitive habitats.

How can the Forest Service allow this damage without any environmental analysis? The short answer is—they can’t. Last December, as part of our ongoing efforts to scrutinize resource extraction in eastern forests, FSEEE filed an administrative appeal of two hard rock mineral exploration proposals on the Superior National Forest in Minnesota that had been authorized without environmental review. The Forest Service admitted their error, withdrew the projects, and is now preparing an environmental assessment of hard rock mining on the Superior.

On February 26, 2007, FSEEE sent a formal inquiry to the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management offices in Mississippi asking why the agency has not prepared the required environmental analysis for the 30,000 acres of National Forest it has recently leased for oil and gas drilling. Our detailed letter specifies both the facts and the law in support of our position that the Forest Service’s 1976 survey of the area is outdated and insufficient. On March 8, 2007, we filed comments that outlined the proper scope of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed oil and gas exploration and requested that the Forest Service stop issuing leases and approving exploration plans until the EIS has been completed.

As the next step, FSEEE will prepare administrative appeals formally challenging the oil and gas exploration on the Bienville, DeSoto and Homochito National Forests in Mississippi. But it is going to take more than administrative appeals to prevent oil companies from recklessly tapping into the liquid wealth that resides beneath these National Forests.

We need your help to pay for a legal challenge of these drilling proposals.

There are enormous profits to be made, and the full weight of the Bush Administration is behind plans to turn southern pine forests into the next oil patch.

Kicking the oil habit is not going to be easy. Those of us who care about national norests have an opportunity to act locally, right here at home, while thinking globally about the consequences of reckless oil consumption. It’s time to make a start.