Protecting Public Lands
Protecting our national parks, forests, and waterways from damage caused by motorized recreation and unsustainable energy development.

Energy Development on Public Lands: Drilling to Disaster

There are still a few places in the United States where the land's natural heritage is thriving; the air is crisp, the streams run clear, rare birds nest, and endangered foxes, lizards, and even panthers forage and play in the brush.

Yet long before the Bush Administration's Energy Plan sparked the prospect of dramatically increased domestic petroleum development, US petroleum companies were scoping vast new stretches of these relatively undisturbed public lands to open for oil and gas production. Targeted lands range from some of the most remote areas that serve as vital wildlife habitat to sacred Native American religious and spiritual sites, Wilderness-Study Areas, National Forests, and even units of National Park System.

The introduction of drilling operations to a given landscape brings a myriad of disastrous changes to both the character and physical integrity of the region. One oil or gas well and its associated infrastructure occupies at least nine acres of land. Miles of new roads constructed to bring heavy-duty, diesel-powered equipment to the drill site fragment wildlife habitat and require the vast clearing of native vegetation. Inevitable leaks of petroleum and drilling fluids contaminate ground water and soil, and each well structure belches tons of toxic pollutants into the air.

Bluewater Network is active in its opposition to new drilling operations on public lands in favor of conservation measures, such as increasing automobile fuel economy and invigorating the production of renewable fuels. Bluewater Network is working to find a solution to the quagmire in which the National Park Service finds itself where private petroleum interests hold subsurface mineral rights to fossil fuels beneath the units of our precious National Park System.

"We are not inheriting these lands from our grandparents, we are borrowing them from our grandchildren." Campaign Director Sean Smith in the spirit of Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe

Read our Growing List of Victories

2002
Bluewater Network sues 18 federal agencies for failure to purchase a legally mandated percentage of vehicles that run on alternative fuels.

2001
Bluewater Network co-sponsors the first retail station selling 100 percent biodiesel in the nation.

Bluewater Network organizes a coalition to sponsor a California budget initiative to provide funding to support biomass ethanol production.

Read the Following to Learn More

Get answers to some frequently asked questions:

Are new drilling technologies environmentally friendly?

Visit these related web sites:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: The Department of Energy's premier laboratory for renewable energy research and development

National Biodiesel Board: the national trade association representing the biodiesel industry for research and development