،”Drill, baby, drill” can now be replaced by “Shell baby, shell
The Obama administration reaffirmed a 2008 government auction of Arctic drilling rights last month, delivering a major victory to Shell Oil Co. as it aims to resume exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea this summer
“Above all, it means we can continue making plans to drill this summer,” said Shell spokesman Curtis Smith, though he noted that the company’s planned exploration program “remains contingent on achieving the necessary permits, legal certainty and our own determination that we are prepared to explore safely and responsibly.”
The company’s previous Arctic venture, in 2012, was marred by mishaps, including higher-than-permitted air pollution from a drillship while in the Chukchi Sea and the beaching of its Kulluk drilling unit on an Alaskan island weeks after exploration ended for the year
“Our Arctic ocean is flat out the worst place on Earth to drill for oil,” pointed out Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)’s Alaska director Niel Lawrence. “The world’s last pristine sea, it is both too fragile to survive a spill and too harsh and remote for effective cleanup. Shell’s disastrous misadventures there in 2012 prove it can never be a secure source of energy for America.”
“It is unconscionable that the federal government is willing to risk the health and safety of the people and wildlife that live near and within the Chukchi Sea for Shell’s reckless pursuit of oil,” said Friends of the Earth‘s Marissa Knodel.
“The Obama administration has steadfastly refused to fully and fairly evaluate the risks of selling leases in the Chukchi Sea and, instead, treats the leases sold in 2008 as if they’re set in stone,” said Susan Murray, Oceana’s deputy vice president for the Pacific. “Rather than once again committing to a risky, poorly justified decision to sell leases in the Chukchi Sea, the government should wipe the slate clean .
Shell (Royal Dutch Shell) is part of the world’s largest Public-Private Partnership .Shell describes itself as “a global group of oil, gas and petrochemical companies with a broad portfolio of hydrogen, biofuels, wind and solar power interests” Shell operates in “more than 140 countries and territories” and has over 100,000 employees, according to its website (accessed February 2007 and company recorded $9.8 billion in profits in 2009 .
The oil and gas industry has benefited from federal tax subsidies for nearly a century. In that time, it has become one of the largest and most profitable industries in the world while the federal government, its source of support, has accumulated a national debt of more than $17.5 trillion. We end up adapting a new American policy from
،”Drill, baby, drill” to “Shell baby, shell …
