Arctic oil drilling soon to become reality

[auroraglacialis]

Shell Arctic oil spill response plan for Chukchi Sea approved - latimes.com

The Obama administration on Friday approved Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.'s plan for responding to an accident should it occur in the Chukchi Sea. The company hopes to begin exploratory drilling there, 70 miles off the northwest coast of Alaska, in June.
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The plan calls for a fleet of oil-spill response vessels to be on hand at all times, along with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. It also calls for a specially designed capping and containment system, still under construction and testing, that would be able to contain and store an accidental release of up to 80,000 barrels a day.
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Conservationists say the plan, as approved, provides no real guarantee that an oil spill would not devastate one of the world’s most fragile environments, home to polar bears, walruses, whales and thousands of migrating birds.

“This is a premature decision,” Marilyn Heiman, director of the U.S. Arctic program for the Pew Environment Group, said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.

She said the plan should, but doesn’t, include an adequate plan for protecting the shoreline and feeding areas for migrating bowhead whales and other species in the event of a spill.

Don’t be fooled by Shell’s Arctic ads - Greenwashing - Greenpeace USA Blog