"Interior to Assess Effects of Possible Arctic Oil Spill"

"The Interior Department will study the potential impacts of a 'very large oil spill' in the Arctic Ocean as part of a court-ordered supplemental review of oil and gas leasing off Alaska's northwest coast, the agency said.

The draft supplemental review will determine the fate of 2.8 million acres of Chukchi Sea leases that sold for nearly $2.7 billion in February 2008 and will inform the agency's approach to future drilling proposals in the Arctic, the department said.

The review is part of Interior's draft supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) released last October and will comply with a summer 2010 ruling by a federal district court in Anchorage that Interior failed to analyze the environmental impacts of natural gas development from the lease and failed to consider missing scientific data."

Phil Taylor reports for Greenwire March 7, 2011.