A public interest group battling the Obama administration in court over the release of information about Arctic drilling claimed the Justice Department is asking Shell for permission to publish 5,000 records.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said Thursday that an Assistant US Attorney handling the case on behalf of the Department of the Interior informed the group that the oil conglomerate will be able to review the records to determine if they contain trade secrets exempt from disclosure.
“It appears that the Obama administration has outsourced offshore safety to Shell,” PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said in a statement on Thursday.
“After the BP debacle in the Gulf, this administration is again asking the public with a straight face for trust while denying them the ability to verify,” he added.
PEER sued the Obama administration on July 30, asking a judge to force it to reveal planned safeguards in conjunction with the Interior-approved Royal Dutch Shell Arctic drilling, which is set to commence soon. PEER filed litigation after its Freedom of Information Act request for the information was ignored by Interior.
The group also noted in a press release issued on Thursday that the Justice Department claimed it might take another three months before the information is released.
The information sought by PEER includes the results of all safety drills and testing, documents certifying well design plans and blowout prevention controls, and whistleblower protection guidelines.
“While Shell may have what it considers confidential business information in some of the equipment specifications, there is no plausible claim with respect to much of the data sought by PEER,” the group stated.
Since June, when PEER first filed its FOIA request, officials have yet to produce a single record, despite promises from President Obama that “safety has been and will continue to be” his administration’s “top priority,” and that the latest drilling permissions given to Shell were “specifically tailored to the risks of drilling off Alaska.”
The multinational oil company began punching exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in July. Earlier drilling attempts in 2012 ended immediately after two rigs were blown off course by gale force winds and ran aground.
Despite acknowledgment from former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that Shell “screwed up in 2012,” President Obama gave the oil giant another shot in May, granting approval for drilling operations in the Arctic.
The move angered environmentalists who continue to dog the administration about it.
As the President toured Alaska this week raising awareness about the effects of climate change, prominent activist Bill McKibbon took to social media to accuse the White House of betrayal.
“It’s literally painful to hear Obama’s powerful words from Alaska and know they’re so cheapened by his decision to let Shell drill,” McKibbon tweeted on Monday.
