Future Oil Spill in Alaska?

BP is now just one step away from opening up a new oil rig off the coast of Alaska.
I'm not kidding. The company whose oil rig in the Gulf just became the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history is on the verge of getting a permit to drill some more -- this time just off the coast of Alaska, near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. [1]

Tell President Obama to reject BP's permit to drill off Alaska's coast.


In light of the damage still unfolding in the Gulf, it seems outrageous that the administration would even consider granting a permit to any oil company to drill anywhere off our coasts. But to BP? Thirty miles from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? That is just beyond words.
In fact, you might even be asking yourself how on earth this could be going forward in light of President Obama's moratorium on new deepwater drilling? Here's how: For its "Liberty" drilling project, BP has actually built a man-made island off the Alaskan coast from which to drill. Technically it's not deepwater or even offshore drilling -- but if we don't act now, it could cause deep trouble.
Click here to tell President Obama to stop BP's Alaska scheme and all new drilling off our coasts.
BP's "Liberty Project" would mount one of the world's most powerful drill rigs on a man-made island in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, and then drill two miles down and eight or nine miles out into the ocean to hit oil -- farther than any drill rig has reached before.
Cleaning up an oil spill in these Alaskan waters would be even more difficult than in the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike the balmy Gulf, the waters of the Beaufort Sea are near-freezing, covered with ice for nine months a year and totally dark for the entire winter.
But the Beaufort Sea is similar to the Gulf coast in one respect: Fish, marine manmals and birds abound. After months of seeing pelicans and sea turtles covered in oil, how could we possibly risk polar bears, seals, bowhead whales and rare birds suffering the same fate, at the hands of the same reckless company?
And yet, BP is only one permit approval away from starting up its giant drill rig off of Alaska's coast. Please click the link below to join me in calling on the President to stop this madness now.

http://www.pennenvironment.org/action/oceans/stop-bp-alaska?id4=ES