I 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6057 
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit preleasing, 
leasing, and related activities in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea Planning 
Areas unless certain conditions are met. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 14, 2008 
Mr. INSLEE (for himself and Mr. HINCHEY) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit 
preleasing, leasing, and related activities in the Beaufort 
and Chukchi Sea Planning Areas unless certain condi-
tions are met. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Polar Bear Seas Pro-
tection Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Americans cherish healthy oceans and wild-
life that marine ecosystems support, and feel a 
strong moral responsibility to protect these resources 
for the benefit of current and future generations. 
(2) The marine ecosystems and coastal habitats 
of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, along Alaska’s 
northern and northwestern shores, provide habitat 
for a large array of wildlife, including endangered 
bowhead whales, beluga whales, polar bears, threat-
ened spectacled eiders, threatened Steller’s eiders, 
walrus, seals, and fish. 
(3) These ecosystems and wildlife they support 
are vital to the survival of the subsistence cultures 
of the Alaska Native peoples of the North Slope and 
have been for thousands upon thousands of years. 
(4) There is a wide consensus among scientists 
that the Arctic is undergoing dramatic changes due 
to climate change, and that these changes are affect-
ing vital sea ice habitat for a number of species, in-
cluding polar bears, walrus, and seals. 
(5) In January 2007, the United States Fish 
and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear 
(Ursus maritimus) as a threatened species under the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973. The polar bear de-
pends on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, its pri-
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mary food, and projected loss of sea ice due to global 
warming was believed to jeopardize polar bears 
throughout their range. 
(6) On January 9, 2008, the Department of the 
Interior missed the legal deadline to make a final 
rule on whether to provide Endangered Species Act 
of 1973 protections to the polar bear. 
(7) On February 6, 2008, the Department of 
the Interior moved forward with oil and gas leasing 
in the Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 193 area, which con-
tains about 29.4 million acres offshore Alaska from 
north of Point Barrow to northwest of Cape 
Lisburne, which is polar bear habitat. 
(8) On April 19, 2008, a United States District 
Court Judge ruled that the Department of the Inte-
rior must make a decision on whether to list the 
polar bear under the Endangered Species Act of 
1973 by May 15, 2008. 
(9) In September 2007, the United States Geo-
logical Survey issued a series of reports that pro-
jected changes in future sea ice conditions, if real-
ized, will result in loss of approximately 2⁄3 of the 
world’s current polar bear population by the middle 
of the 21st century and extirpation of polar bears in 
Alaska. The agency also concluded that because the 
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observed trajectory of Arctic sea ice decline appears 
to be underestimated by currently available models, 
this assessment of future polar bear status may be 
conservative. 
(10) While the major threat to polar bears is 
global warming, resulting from continuing emissions 
of green house gases, potential oil and gas develop-
ment in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas poses addi-
tional risks to polar bears and other marine life in 
the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. 
(11) There is currently no effective means to 
recover spilled oil in the harsh environment of the 
Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, especially during peri-
ods of solid and broken ice. 
(12) The Minerals Management Service’s 2007– 
2012 OCS leasing plan anticipates offering 40 mil-
lion acres of the Chukchi Sea for lease and expand-
ing leasing in the Beaufort Sea to 33 million acres. 
All of this area overlaps with vital polar bear habi-
tat. 
(13) In the environmental impact statement for 
the first of five lease sales planned for the current 
5-year OCS leasing plan in the Arctic Ocean, Lease 
Sale 193 in the Chukchi Sea, the Minerals Manage-
ment Service concludes that the effects of a large oil 
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spill, particularly during the broken-ice period, could 
pose significant risks to the polar bear population, 
and that a large oil spill could have significant im-
pacts on other marine mammals including whales 
and walruses. In the same document the agency 
states that there was a lack of information on ma-
rine mammal ecology, and habitat use. 
(14) In addition, onshore industrial develop-
ment activities necessary to support offshore oil and 
gas development can damage important habitat and 
cause harmful disturbance of denning polar bears, 
and other wildlife. 
(15) Because of the threats oil and gas develop-
ment poses to subsistence resources, public health, 
and survival of their culture, tribal governments, in-
cluding the Native Village of Point Hope, the Native 
Village of Barrow, the Inupiat Community of the 
Arctic Slope, and the Alaska Intertribal Council, 
have expressed opposition to offshore oil and gas de-
velopment in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON LEASING IN BEAUFORT AND 
CHUKCHI SEA PLANNING AREAS. 
Section 8 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 
(43 U.S.C. 1337) is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
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‘‘(q) PROHIBITION ON LEASING IN BEAUFORT AND 
CHUKCHI SEA PLANNING AREAS.— 
‘‘(1) The Secretary shall not offer for or ap-
prove leasing, preleasing, or any related activity (in-
cluding approving any seismic activity, offering any 
new lease, or approving an exploration or develop-
ment plan) within any area of the Chukchi or Beau-
fort Sea marine and coastal ecosystems until– 
‘‘(A) the National Research Council— 
‘‘(i) identifies missing information on 
the composition, distribution, status and 
ecology of the living marine resources in 
the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea marine and 
coastal ecosystems that— 
‘‘(I) focuses on the changes 
caused and likely to be caused by cli-
mate changes; and 
‘‘(II) supports the establishment 
of baseline information and the deter-
mination of the potential impacts, in-
cluding cumulative impacts, of all oil- 
and gas-related activities on plant and 
animal species, marine and coastal en-
vironments, and Alaskan Native com-
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munities and their subsistence activi-
ties; 
‘‘(ii) reports on the adequacy of ongo-
ing and completed environmental, public 
health, and cultural studies (including on-
going and completed studies conducted by 
the Alaska environmental studies program 
of the Minerals Management Service) in 
providing information described in clause 
(i); and 
‘‘(iii) submits to Congress a report 
that— 
‘‘(I) identifies missing informa-
tion; 
‘‘(II) evaluates the adequacy of 
ongoing and completed studies; and 
‘‘(III) makes recommendations 
on any additional studies or research 
that are required to provide missing 
information identified pursuant to 
clause (i); 
‘‘(B)(i) the polar bear is listed as an en-
dangered species or a threatened species under 
the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 
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1531 et seq.) and critical habitat is designated 
for the species; or 
‘‘(ii) the Secretary publishes a deter-
mination that such a listing is not war-
ranted; 
‘‘(C) the Secretary— 
‘‘(i) performs an oil spill response gap 
analysis for proposed and existing arctic oil 
operations; 
‘‘(ii)(I) using a public process that in-
cludes consultation with local governments, 
tribal governments, natural resource man-
agers, and other stakeholders, sets a 
standard required of lessees to ensure that 
at least 85 percent of the total volume of 
spilled oil can be recovered mechanically 
and removed from the environment within 
30 days after the initial release in any ice 
condition or season of the year; 
‘‘(II) demonstrates that the 85 per-
cent recovery standard can be achieved 
prior to issuing any leases, and prior to 
approving any seismic exploration, explo-
ration plans, or development and produc-
tion plans; and 
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‘‘(III) requires that the oil spill re-
sponse gap for activities under each lease 
ensures 85 percent oil recovery in any 
given ice condition or season of the year; 
‘‘(iii) implements a procedure to close 
areas in whole or seasonally to oil and gas 
activity because of the existence of a re-
sponse gap; and 
‘‘(iv) establishes requirements for in-
stalling, operating, and maintaining oil 
spill prevention systems, or institutes oper-
ating restrictions to improve safety and 
minimize spill risks; and 
‘‘(D) the Secretary determines that— 
‘‘(i) all recommendations submitted by 
the National Research Council report 
under subparagraph (A)(iii)(III) are imple-
mented; 
‘‘(ii) oil and gas exploration and devel-
opment activities can be conducted in the 
Beaufort and Chukchi Sea Planning Areas 
without posing a risk of substantial ad-
verse impact to wildlife, or wildlife habitat 
and subsistence; and 
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‘‘(iii) any mitigation measures nec-
essary to avoid such risks are identified 
and the efficacy of the measures is estab-
lished. 
‘‘(2) In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) The term ‘response gap’ means a pe-
riod of time during which the oil spill recovery 
standard established pursuant to paragraph 
(1)(C)(ii)(I) cannot be achieved. 
‘‘(B) The term ‘response gap analysis’ 
means— 
‘‘(i) a calculation of the response op-
erating limits of spill response systems for 
a set of environmental factors, such as 
wind, sea state, sea ice, and visibility, and 
an analysis of the frequency, duration, and 
timing of conditions that would limit a re-
sponse in a particular location, including 
an assessment of local response capabilities 
and oil spill contingency plans, using a 
methodology that accounts for the cumu-
lative interplay between factors that would 
cause two or more variables that are indi-
vidually within the system’s limits to ex-
ceed those limits when combined; 
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‘‘(ii) based on such calculation, an as-
sessment of the frequency, duration, and 
timing of occurrence of one or more lim-
iting factors or limiting combinations that 
may preclude achieving the oil spill recov-
ery standard established pursuant to para-
graph (1)(C)(ii)(I) using either modeled or 
historical environmental and climate data 
for a given location or area; and 
‘‘(iii) based on such calculation and 
assessment, a quantification of the per-
centage of time during which local condi-
tions exceed the demonstrated limits of 
spill response systems to achieve achieving 
the oil spill recovery standard established 
pursuant to paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(I).’’. 
Æ 
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