A major oil company has received permission from the Obama administration to begin drilling for oil in remote and dangerous waters off Alaska, just three years after the company’s first incursion into the Arctic ended in disaster and allegations of corporate neglect.
The move by the White House on Monday to grant conditional approval to Shell Gulf of Mexico to resume drilling operations in the Chuckchi Sea off Alaska elicited a sharp rebuke from environmentalists, who accused the administration of rushing to green light “risky and ill-conceived exploration.”
“Shell has not shown that it is prepared to operate responsibly in the Arctic Ocean, and neither the company nor our government has been willing to fully and fairly evaluate the risks of Shell’s proposal,” said Susan Murray, the vice president of environmental group Oceana, according to the New York Times.
The Department of the Interior attempted to assuage concerns, claiming it was taking a “thoughtful approach.”
In a statement released by Abigail Ross Hooper, the director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management defended the moves on environmental grounds and, said that the Obama administration is also “establishing high standards for the protection of this critical ecosystem, our Arctic communities, and the subsistence needs and cultural traditions of Alaska Natives.”
Before exploration commences, Shell must collect several more drilling permits, which the company asked to be delivered in a “practical and timely manner,” according to a spokesperson reacting to the decision.
Shell’s initial venture into the Arctic Ocean in 2012 ended abruptly after two oil rigs ran aground and had to be rescued. The Interior Department subsequently yanked approval for further exploration in the area.
“Shell screwed up in 2012,” former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said two years ago, following a department review of the company’s operations in the Arctic. That report, released in March 2013, concluded that Shell was “not fully prepared” entering the drilling season, and experienced “significant problems with contractors.”
Even if the company does due diligence moving forward, drilling operations are still extremely dangerous in the Arctic Ocean, with its massive storms, and rough, frigid waters.
“The Arctic is a very difficult environment to operate in. Shell is one of the most resource-capable companies in the world and it still encountered a whole host of problems trying to operate up there,” Salazar noted in 2013.
Assuming Shell is able to secure its remaining drilling permits, its operations in the Arctic Ocean are expected to resume this summer.
The administration’s decision to open up the Arctic for Shell contradicts measures taken by President Obama in January to designate, through executive action more than 12 million acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as “wilderness.” The designation offered the lands additional legal protection from future oil exploration and extraction.
Reacting to the decision in January, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) claimed that the President had “effectively declared war on Alaska.”
