FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

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We're very pleased, then, to report the passage of this new law. When it goes into effect in March of 1977, foreign fleets will have to get a permit from the Coast Guard in order to fish within 200 miles of the U.S. coast.

OIL FIRST, ALASKA SECOND

This April the U.S. Interior Department moved one step closer to forever ruining our largest state's natural environment. How? By announcing that it would begin accepting bids for oil exploration rights on more than a million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Alaska.

Yes, that region is one of the richest oil fields left in this country . . . but it's also one of the most hazardous places anyone could ever pick for drilling operations. The waters are choppy and treacherous, and the climate is severe. Worse yet, the area's ecosystem is exceptionally fragile. It'll be easy for oil companies to make a real mess of the environment . . . but almost impossible to clean that mess up.

As a result, opposition to the leasing was very vocal and widespread. The EPA, the Council on Environmental Qual ity, and even the state of Alaska itself wanted to at least delay the proceedings. But the nation's maniac thirst for oil won out.

At this point, it looks as though the winning high bids for exploration rights will total around $580 million . . . a bargain price for the oil companies, who expect to pump as much as three billion barrels of black gold from the gulf.

We wonder, though: What will the real cost be in terms of our environment? And why—just this once—couldn't we have saved those oil reserves as a kind of bank balance for future generations?

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