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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChorus of Outrage as Obama Administration Approves Arctic Drilling for Shell Oil
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Department of the Interior ignoring its own report on threat to climate, say environmental groups
Environmental activists expressed shock and outrage on Tuesday after the U.S. Department of the Interior upheld a 2008 lease sale on the Arctic's Chuchki Sea, opening the door for continued oil exploration in a region long eyed for drilling by Shell Corporation and increasingly strained under the effects of climate change.
The decision opens up 30 million acres in the Chuchki Sea to fossil fuel exploration and drilling, a move which state and national green groups called "unconscionable."
"Our Arctic ocean is flat out the worst place on Earth to drill for oil," said Niel Lawrence, Alaska director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The worlds last pristine sea, it is both too fragile to survive a spill and too harsh and remote for effective cleanup."
In January 2014, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Interior Department had violated the law when it sold those 2008 leasesa deal that came about during George W. Bush's presidency, but was upheld two years later by the Obama administration.
The 2014 decision ordered the Interior Department to reconsider the leases. A month later, the department admitted that drilling in the Chucki Sea was likely to have devastating consequences, with a spill risk of 75 percent or more.
"It is unconscionable that the federal government is willing to risk the health and safety of the people and wildlife that live near and within the Chukchi Sea for Shells reckless pursuit of oil," said Marissa Knodel, a climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth. "Shells dismal record of safety violations and accidents, coupled with the inability to clean up or contain an oil spill in the remote, dangerous Arctic waters, equals a disaster waiting to happen."
"Ignoring its own environmental review, the U.S. Department of the Interior has opened the door for drilling in the remote and iconic Arctic Ocean," said the Sierra Club on Tuesday.
"It's shocking that the Department of the Interior would knowingly move forward with a plan that has a 75 percent chance of creating a major spill in the Chukchi Sea. We cant trust Shell or any other oil company with Americas Arctic," Cindy Shogan, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, added. "Shell has proposed an even dirtier and riskier Arctic drilling program for this summer. The Obama administration has seen the impacts of what a major oil spill looks like."
The Bureau of Ocean Management will next conduct an environmental assessment on Shell's exploration plan for the Chuchki Sea, which could take 30 days or more.
The Chuchki Sea is home to an estimated 2,000 polar bears and serves as the feeding grounds for migratory gray whales.
"The industrial oil development that Interior hopes will flow from its decision to approve the Chukchi lease sale gives us a 75 percent chance of a large oil spill and a 100 percent chance of worsening the climate crisis," Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, added. "I dont like those odds."
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http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/01/chorus-outrage-obama-administration-approves-arctic-drilling-shell-oil
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Thanks to the Japanese
Instead of interfering in Ukraine or Syria, that money could be used to replicate the above Honda Hydrogen station. The crooks in DC are spending >$10 million dollars PER HOUR right now on the wars, which will never ever benefit any of the 99%.
yuiyoshida
(41,867 posts)This is totally cool looking car. love it! daisuki!!
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)But I'm not a Toyota fan in general.
yuiyoshida
(41,867 posts)We need to get off the GASOLINE addiction and go with alternatives.
merrily
(45,251 posts)I like the looks of Toyota Mirai, but I want to hand it a giant tissue for some reason.
F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)Fuel cells are far too problematic. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/05/3467115/tesla-toyota-hydrogen-cars-batteries/
Edit: also, Toyota has managed to turn out what imo is the ugliest car I have seen, and that is saying something. They need to fire their whole design team--Lexus and Toyota have gotten nothing but worse, and given their competitors are really shaping up, they're going to have a problem at some point.
NickB79
(19,276 posts)Hydrogen cars, petrol cars, both are still tethered to the fossil fuel industry.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)especially after the comedy of errors that was Shell's first attempt up there.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Who said, "Drill, Baby,Drill" during the 2008 Presidential Campaign?
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)Not entirely sure however, my memory is not what it used to be. He never pretended to care about excessive drilling in environments ill equipped to handle it, judging by the "drill baby drill" campaign promise, the problem is we didn't listen to him when he said it, so it must be our fault.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)The Left must not have been listening and paying attention.
Obama has always been for more drilling in protected areas.
/sarcasm
didn't have to elect Palin after all. Drill, Baby, Drill...as the planet slowly kills its human inhabitants.
merrily
(45,251 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)who NOT to vote for ...
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Lol
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)McCain promised to lift the ban on Offshore Drilling and was trashed in a debate by Obama who promised he would keep that ban in place.
I believed him.
I believed a lot back then.
zeemike
(18,998 posts)We are too consumed with Indiana right now to care.
There may be other things that will slip in there while we are outraged over that state of affairs.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)To sell to Japan.
"We" in the Corporate sense, of course, in the Royal Dutch Shell sense of the term.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Corporate tactics, corporate policies.
merrily
(45,251 posts)catbyte
(34,485 posts)I am soooooooo disappointed. They're still dealing with that fucking Exxon spill in Prince William Sound.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Oil enough rope to hang themselves!
DrDan
(20,411 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)idea. Rhetorical question.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)the excuses. If interest in this goes away, no time will be wasted on talking points.
However they do have some old ones from the time when Obama unbelievably, at that time anyhow, reversed his Campaign promise NOT to lift the ban on offshore drilling, and then did it, just 18 days BEFORE the tragedy in the Gulf.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Jakes Progress
(11,123 posts)This is just another bit of reagan adoration.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,737 posts)Shit.
Another horrible blunder by our President.
I am sickened by this.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)but truth to tell, the Repukes have ripped off this state so badly, we need the jobs.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)jobs have been created eg, in the Solar industry over the past year than any other field.
Imagine an FDR Democrat at this time. I could see the creation of a huge Solar Industry throughout the nation right now.
But alas, we do not have an FDR to support such progress.
Teddy R. would have done the same.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)There's not much of an opportunity given the amount of dark we have 1/2 the year - but it does work, only no one can afford to transfer to it.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)How about Wind, we have that here too. It's the way of the future, the US is way behind, though some progress is being made and appears to be moving faster over the past year.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)And the mountains seem to be sending any wind elsewhere!
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Saw proposals for WV eg, that appeared to be extremely advanced in terms of overcoming obstacles to making that state totally oil free. Naturally they were rejected with a lot of help from the Coal Industry, for now.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)They'll take anyone down.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)We've got wind (already 11 turbines on Fire Island), more sun than Fairbanks, plus they could do a lot with the tide if they put their minds to it. With one of the highest tides in the world, there's plenty of energy being generated in Cook Inlet. It's too bad there's not more geothermal energy up there like out at Chena Hot Springs. I love that place.
xenoturkey
(68 posts)Given Alaska's current issues; i'm glad Obama had this happen. I don't think a shell level of fail is that realistic.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)The hits just keep coming.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)Boo! Hiss!
MFM008
(19,823 posts)for good and all.
merrily
(45,251 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)swore he would not lift the ban on offshore drilling.
WATCH WHAT THEY DO, definitely NOT what they say in campaigns.
merrily
(45,251 posts)And probably disingenuous.
Moreover, if you have to hire over 200 campaign advisors to help you figure out how to disguise describe what you stand for.....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=394507
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)Sometimes, I can't even speak to my own motivations with 100% accuracy and completeness.
Apparently, though, Reuters thinks it knows Obama's motivations. Does it? No clue.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/usa-shell-arctic-idUSKBN0MS54K20150401
Anansi1171
(793 posts)...whatever this contest of the Pax Americana and its continued viability is.
Please wake up, DU.
progressoid
(50,000 posts)Oh, wait.
Shit.
RandiFan1290
(6,256 posts)bigtree
(86,008 posts)...an accident waiting to happen.
...a U.S. government report, released in February, forecasts a 75 percent chance of a large oil spill occurring in the Arctic over a 77-year scenario. The forecast, in BOEMs 780-page second final environmental impact statement on Shells lease sale, says a spill as huge as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is unlikely to occur, but if it did, the impacts would be substantial.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/2015/03/150331-arctic-oil-drilling-shell-interior-permission/?sf8323268=1
hatrack
(59,594 posts)Valdez was practically tropical compared with the Chukchi Sea, and they haven't even gotten a fraction of the oil 26 years after the spill there.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)xenoturkey
(68 posts)There's definitely risk; but I don't think we should assume a shell level of fail from the past. Alaska needs drilling for better or worse. I hope we can diversify and soon; but for the here and now its necessary. 90% of alaska government revenue comes from oil taxes.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)At least that's my understanding.
xenoturkey
(68 posts)But that can be changed. Obviously doling out more than we get back is ludicrous. I'm hoping walker addresses it soon.
*edit* I just realized you meant drilling on federal lands. I believe you are correct; we receive nothing from the federal drilling. I'm not sure about the specifics though. If so then yeah; this is a waste and just a giveaway to the corporations.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)that those idiots in the legislature are busy chopping programs left and right and yet won't revisit SB21. And have you noticed that everything that the majority of Alaskans favor, Pete Kelly goes out of his way to oppose? I can't stand that holier-than-thou pompous fucker.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)Told ya......