Storm of protest over Shell’s plans

In the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, numerous environmental organizations have raised a storm of protest over Shell’s plans to drill exploration wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in 2010. The Gulf of Mexico incident demonstrates the risks associated with offshore drilling — a similar oil spill in the Arctic offshore would cause huge environmental damage, the organizations say.

“With no way to clean up a spill in the Arctic’s harsh and icy conditions and limited capacity to respond to a major spill, the risk is too high in the Arctic — especially since the lessons from the Gulf have yet to be learned,” said Rebecca Noblin of the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement characteristic of several from the environmental community. “The Obama administration must act now to cancel this summer’s plans for offshore drilling in the Arctic before we sacrifice another one of our precious coasts.”

The Pew Environmental Group listed a string of concerns about Shell’s program, including extreme Arctic weather; the distance of well sites from shore; the lack of a support infrastructure and what Pew claims is an understatement by MMS of well blowout risks. Pew also says that oil spill cleanup technologies have not been proven to be effective in the Arctic.

—Alan Bailey