search:

• Home
• About Jay
  • Biography
  • Resume
  • Accomplishments
• Contact Jay
  • E-mail
  • Get e-mail updates
  • Offices
  • Directions
  • Staff
  • Schedule a meeting
• Get assistance
  • FAQ
  • Help with a federal agency
  • Federal resources
  • Register to vote
  • Tours in Washington, D.C.
  • Flags
  • Grants
  • Service Academies
  • Internships
  • Unclaimed tax refunds
• Jay's work in Congress
  • Committees
  • Bills sponsored
  • Voting record
  • Key votes
  • Speeches in the Congressional Record
• Issues
  • Boeing
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Families
  • Global warming
  • Health
  • Iraq
  • Japanese American memorial
  • Media ownership
  • Microsoft
  • Miscellaneous
  • National security
  • Pipeline
  • Privacy
  • Public safety
  • Social Security
  • Technology
  • Transportation
  • Veterans
• Press
  • Media releases
  • Multimedia
  • Columns
  • Request an interview
  • Official photo
• About the 1st District
  • Map
  • Google map
  • Description
  • Census information
  • Tourism
  • State and local resources
• About Congress
  • History
  • How laws are made
  • Currently on the House floor
  • Watch the House floor
  • Daily House schedule
  • Weekly House schedule
  • Annual House schedule
• Privacy policy
• Site map

Issues

Environment

Inslee to Kempthorne: Take Bristol Bay off the table

30 April 2007

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today included Alaska's salmon-rich Bristol Bay in the administration's five-year plan to expand oil and gas drilling in federal waters.

Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), along with U.S. Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), filed legislation aimed at reinstating protections for Alaska's North Aleutian Basin that were lifted by the president in January. He made the following statement in response to Kempthorne's announcement:

"Opening Bristol Bay to drilling only feeds our country's addiction to oil. Until we break our addiction, we will see more and more proposals to put our nation's treasures at risk.

"This is yet another reason to adopt a New Apollo Energy Project, which will wean us from fossil fuels, address global warming, create millions of jobs, and protect our last remaining environmental jewels."

Inslee's Bristol Bay Protection Act, H.R. 1957, would place a congressional ban on oil and gas leasing in the North Aleutian Basin Planning Area. The area was protected from offshore exploration since shortly after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster until the presidential leasing ban was lifted in January.

"With so many fisheries at risk, it is most unwise to ignore the success we've had in maintaining Bristol Bay as one of the world's most productive fishing resources. This is a rare success story and now the administration wants to put it in jeopardy."

Inslee, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee and Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, hails from Washington, a state that trails only Alaska in the number of salmon permit holders in Bristol Bay.

Click here to read Inslee's Bristol Bay legislation.

U.S. Rep Jay Inslee