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Protests mount over Shell drilling
Shell’s multi-year efforts to move forward in its Arctic offshore drilling program have been plagued by a series of court cases in which environmental groups have tried to block the permitting of Shell’s activities. But, with the start of drilling now appearing imminent, protestors have taken to the streets, expressing their views in a more visible and vociferous manner.
“In Barrow and Point Hope, Alaska, people who care about the future of America’s Arctic raised a symbolic paddle or joined in a prayer for the ocean to show the Obama administration that they will continue to defend the integrity of the Arctic Ocean from drilling,” said the Alaska Wilderness League in a July 12 press release. “Across the country, concerned citizens from Honolulu, Hawaii to Gloucester, Massachusetts gathered in symbolic expressions of solidarity.”
“Shell’s plans to drill for oil in America’s Arctic waters threaten a way of life in the Arctic that has thrived for thousands of years,” said Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, tribal liaison for Alaska Wilderness League, in Barrow on that same day. “I’m here today to show President Obama and Shell Oil that I will continue to fight for a healthy and intact Arctic for future generations.”
Greenpeace still prominent The environmental organization Greenpeace has taken a prominent role in the protests. After previously attempting to prevent an icebreaker and the drillship Noble Discoverer from setting out to join Shell’s drilling fleet, in mid-July activists from the organization occupied more than 70 Shell filling stations in the United Kingdom.
Greenpeace has also launched a spoof Shell website, appearing to show Shell as taking a cavalier attitude to the Arctic environment. A Greenpeace video purporting to depict a Shell company meeting in which an attendee is accidentally sprayed with oil spilling from a model oil well went viral on the Internet.
And a Greenpeace vessel, which Greenpeace says is carrying out environmental research using submarines and other equipment, has headed for the area of Shell’s planned Chukchi Sea drilling.
Agencies questioned On July 13 Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Doc Hastings sent a letter to Dr. Jane Lubchenkco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and James Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, asking what steps the two government agencies have taken to ensure that Greenpeace activities do not threaten safe operations, disturb marine mammals or interfere with anticipated Native Alaskan subsistence hunting.
“If Sen. Murkowski really cared about protecting Alaska and the environment, she would be focused on stopping Shell’s Arctic drilling operations, instead of cheerleading for Big Oil and trying to block scientific research and peaceful protest,” said Dan Howells, Greenpeace deputy campaign director. “Shell’s drilling program will pollute pristine Arctic air, disturb marine mammals, risk a devastating oil spill that could not be cleaned up, and accelerate climate change. This represents an existential threat to the Arctic ecosystem. A single Greenpeace ship on a research mission does not.”
Greenpeace Media Officer James Turner told Petroleum News July 25 that Greenpeace’s Chukchi Sea voyage has all authorizations required by law and questioned whether the senators would request that all future Arctic shipping meet the standards they were demanding for Greenpeace.
—Alan Bailey
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