LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
2010 Webby Award Winner for Best Political Blog
 
May 26, 2012
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     gay marriage     barack obama     chris hedges     ndaa     robert scheer
Most Read

TED: 'A Money-Soaked Orgy of Self-Congratulatory Futurism'

Russia and Exxon Mobil Sign Arctic Oil Deal

Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’

I Can't Hear Myself Think

A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
Why Bain Questions Matter
OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Better Than We Found It
The Good-Natured Dictator

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101

Truthdig Bazaar
The Tyranny of Dead Ideas

The Tyranny of Dead Ideas

By Matt Miller
$16.50

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Fighting a Shell Game in the Arctic

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   

Posted on Jan 24, 2010
Flickr / B69D

The legal claim accuses government regulators under the Bush administration of skimping on assessing the environmental dangers of oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea.

A legal challenge by environmental and indigenous Alaskan groups may dampen Shell Oil’s chances of drilling for billions of barrels of oil in the U.S. portion of the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea. It’s feared the controversial plan could spell disaster for endangered species as well as increase global warming. —JCL

The Guardian:

Royal Dutch Shell’s controversial plans to drill for billions of barrels of oil in the Arctic’s environmentally sensitive frozen waters face a potentially damaging legal challenge.

An alliance of conservation and Alaskan indigenous groups has filed a legal claim to prevent Shell drilling for oil this year in the Arctic Ocean’s Chukchi Sea. Two years ago, Shell paid $2.1bn (£1.3bn) to the US government for 275 oil leases there.

The legal claim accuses the US’s minerals management service, part of the federal interior department, of waving through permission to allow Shell to drill wells on the basis of an “abbreviated and internal review” of the environmental dangers of exploration.

The US portion of the Chukchi Sea, which separates north-western Alaska from north-eastern Siberia, is believed to hold 15bn barrels of recoverable oil and 76tn cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, according to the interior department.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.

By denny rusell, January 25, 2010 at 8:39 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I have no problems with shell or any other oil company drilling in the artic, as long as all oil goes to the u.s. It doesn"t make any sense to give these oil companys our oil then have them sell our oil back to us at open prices

Report this

By wildflower, January 25, 2010 at 12:43 am Link to this comment

“one of the world’s leading marine conservation scientists has resigned from the University of Alaska, claiming he lost state funding partly because of his criticism of Shell’s Alaskan activities. . .  Steiner alleges the university was told by a state environmental funding agency that his stance on oil exploration was “a problem”
which led to his grant being withdrawn.

Guess Shell Oil Corporation doesn’t believe in “freedom of speech.”

Report this
Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox


 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.