,483 

 Mr. D'Amours. Ms. Rigg. 



STATEMENT OF MS. KELLY RIGG 



Ms. Rigg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



On behalf of the 400,000 Greenpeace supporters in the United 

 States, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify 

 today. First, I will address the topic of the Georges Bank biological 

 task force and monitoring program with respect to its role in the 

 Outer Continental Shelf planning process, and second, I will ad- 

 dress the issue of balancing environmental risks with fluctuating 

 resource potential estimates. 



Mr. D'Amours. Given the fact that the biological task force has 

 been addressed so frequently, I hope you will skip over those parts 

 that tell us how it works and what it does, and that will shorten 

 the testimony. 



I will repeat for the record, and for your information, that your 

 testimony as submitted will appear in the record, just as you sub- 

 mitted it. In other words, unchanged. So you needn't fear that your 

 testimony will not appear just as you submitted it, whatever you 

 say. 



Also your oral testimony will be included. 



Ms. Rigg. Thank you. 



The most fatal flaw in the way the program is now designed con- 

 cerns the timing of the studies with respect to the OCS planning 

 process. We are only now seeing the results of the studies done 

 during the first year of drilling under lease sale 42. Obviously, 

 studies were not completed before lease sale 42 was held, and had 

 lease sale 52 not been fought and prevented, the studies would not 

 have been complete before that sale was held. 



And now, with the planning for lease sale 82 in full swing, the 

 outcome of the studies will not have been included in this planning 

 process either. With lease sales scheduled to take place every 2 

 years, it is obvious that Interior has never had any intention of ac- 

 tually using these studies to develop wise resource management 

 policies. Undoubtedly, though, the Department of Interior will pro- 

 ceed with its accelerated leasing plan for the North Atlantic, and 

 use the preliminary conclusions from these studies, which to date 

 have found no substantial damage, as a justification for continuing 

 on its frantic course to develop all OCS resources. This is unwise, 

 unjustifiable, and a gross breach of the public trust. 



Second, the studies conducted under the monitoring program 

 have taken a fragmented approach to a complex ecosystem. The 

 components of the ecosystem include — although are not limited 

 to — the benthic community, the planktonic community, fish and ce- 

 taceans, all living in an amazingly dynamic marine environment. 

 But the studies focus on individual aspects of that ecosystem and 

 even in this fragmented framework, not all aspects of the ecosys- 

 tem have been studied. 



For example, while the benthic community is being studied, the 

 planktonic community is not. Moreover, the results of these indi- 

 vidual studies have not been assembled and synthesized in a way 

 that might give some preliminary indications as to how the various 

 factors interrelate. This piecemeal approach cannot begin to give a 



