On March 28 Judge Sharon Gleason in the federal District Court in Alaska issued a preliminary injunction banning activist organization Greenpeace from occupying any of a list of 19 vessels that Shell plans to use for exploratory drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas during this year’s open water season. The list of vessels includes the drillship Noble Discover, the floating drilling platform the Kulluk, anchor handlers, icebreakers and oil spill response vessels, with the ban continuing until Oct. 31and applying while the vessels are in U.S. waters and ports.
Members of Greenpeace and “all others who are in active concert or participation with Greenpeace” are banned from breaking into or trespassing on the vessels; interfering with vessel operations; preventing access to or egress from the vessels; or threatening or endangering people using the vessels, the court order says.
Judge Gleason also banned Greenpeace activists from entering safety zones ranging from 500 to 1,000 meters around the vessels when the vessels are in transit.
In February Shell asked the District Court to issue a restraining order against Greenpeace, which has already protested against the company’s Arctic drilling plans by occupying the Noble Discoverer in New Zealand and by occupying two icebreakers in Finland that had been contracted for Shell’s operations. Gleason responded by issuing a temporary restraining order, banning Greenpeace from trespassing on Shell’s drilling vessels. The injunction issued March 28 supersedes that restraining order.
Case continues
However, the court case against Greenpeace is still continuing, with Judge Gleason still to rule on some motions that Greenpeace has raised. Consequently, the court may at some point issue a supplemental or revised injunction, the court order says.
Among the claims still to be ruled on is a question of District Court jurisdiction over activities in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ, where Shell will be drilling, as distinct from U.S. territorial waters and harbors. Gleason says that the court will rule on this question before Shell’s vessels start to operate in the EEZ. Similarly the court will rule in due course on a question of court jurisdiction over activities at aviation facilities in the northern Alaska town of Barrow, where Shell will presumably base the aviation operations in support of its drilling fleet.
Gleason has also deferred a ruling on a claim by Greenpeace that Shell has failed to state a viable cause for action against the environmental organization.
However, the court has found that it is likely that Greenpeace will take action against Shell’s Arctic operations; that those actions would likely cause “irreparable harm” to Shell; that the “balance of the equities” favors Shell; and that an injunction against Greenpeace is in the public interest. On those grounds, Gleason issued the preliminary injunction against Greenpeace while the remaining issues in the court case are dealt with.
—Alan Bailey
