From the Inbox: Do You Trust BP to drill in polar bear habitat?

BP in the Arctic: Disaster on Ice? Do you trust BP to use risky new drilling technology in pristine Arctic habitats? Tell Interior Secretary Salazar to reject BP’s application to drill in the Beaufort Sea -- and help avert the next oil spill catastrophe! Dear Friend, They’re BACK ... The same company that just brought you the most catastrophic oil spill in American history is now planning a risky new project that would use untested drilling technology in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea -- the heart of America’s polar bear habitat. BP’s so-called Liberty Project would use the biggest rig in the world -- propped up by a manmade gravel island three miles from shore – to drill up to eight miles horizontally, exposing pipes to the same kind of explosive “gas kicks” that led to the blowout in the Gulf. In other words, this latest BP project is a disaster waiting to happen! Please help stop it by signing this urgent Petition of Protest to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. You might have thought BP would lay low after the Gulf disaster: focusing on the cleanup effort and repairing its dismal environmental record. Instead, the company is planning to begin drilling this fall in one of the two Polar Bear Seas that are home to HALF of our nation’s polar bears. Let me share a few facts about BP’s Liberty Project: Even though it’s three miles offshore, this project is NOT subject to President Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic! That’s because the operation is built on a 31-acre manmade gravel island. In other words, BP is getting a free pass based on a technicality. BP is prepared to drill up to eight miles horizontally in search of oil, even though this type of drilling is even more prone to gas kicks like the one that caused the huge blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to drill these unprecedented wells, BP has commissioned the building of the largest drilling rig in the world! Shockingly, BP was allowed to write its own environmental assessment and emergency response plan for the Liberty Project, just like it did in the Gulf. And we know what happened there. The Obama Administration needs to make clear that the days of BP running the show are over. Tell Secretary Salazar to stop the Liberty Project immediately by denying BP’s application to drill. He is unlikely to do that unless he hears a groundswell of public opposition -- starting with you. BP’s horrendous environmental record is well documented. It is already responsible for the 2010 Gulf disaster, the 2006 oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope (the largest oil spill to date in the region) and the 2005 Texas City explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 more. We can’t afford a repeat performance in the Arctic. High winds, freezing temperatures and dangerous sea ice could make cleanup impossible. The nearest Coast Guard station is over 1,000 miles away, and much of the oil spill response equipment on-site is more than two decades old! Tell Secretary Salazar to prevent a disaster on ice by saying No to BP. Sincerely, Peter Lehner Executive Director Natural Resources Defense Council