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Ted S. Warren / AP
This Shell drilling rig, upgraded in Seattle, will soon head to Alaska, where Shell hopes to drill exploratory wells in Arctic waters.
Parts of America’s Arctic waters, long a battleground between environmentalists and the energy industry, will be open for oil and natural gas drilling in four years, the Obama administration said Tuesday -- the same day Shell announced it had successfully tested a new spill containment system for its planned Arctic exploration this summer.
Details will be released Thursday, but Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters the idea is to adopt "targeted leasing" -- opening some areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas for drilling while protecting others critical for native subsistence and ecosystem health.
Shell is awaiting the final permits to explore in the region this summer, and on Tuesday said a device to cap any spill was successfully tested in waters off Seattle. "The capping stack was deployed to a depth consistent with the shallow water scenario we will encounter off the coast of Alaska," the oil giant said in a statement.
How the industry prepares for spills has come under greater scrutiny since the 2010 BP oil spill disaster, where the containment system failed.
Environmentalists oppose drilling in America's Arctic due to the sensitive ecosystem it provides for polar bears, walruses, whales and seals.
Shell
A newly designed "capping stack" is tested by Shell in waters off Seattle, Wash., on Monday.
"There is no viable way to clean up oil spilled into the Arctic Ocean," Kristen Miller of the Alaska Wilderness League said in a statement. "The Arctic is perhaps the most extreme region on the planet with subzero temperatures, hurricane force storms and long periods of darkness. Spill response capacity is practically nonexistent in these remote, icy waters -- the nearest Coast Guard station is more than 1,000 miles away."
Shell is required to have a flotilla of spill response boats should its capping system fail, and Salazar said no commercial drilling would proceed if Interior concludes that spills cannot be contained.
Shell's work "will be conducted under the closest oversight and most rigorous safety standards in the history of the United States," he said from Norway, where he and ministers of other Arctic nations were talking about the region's energy wealth.
Salazar was confident Shell would receive the final permits for exploratory drilling this summer.
"It is highly likely that the permits will be issued" because Shell has been in compliance so far, he said. In past years, and before strict standards, 30 exploratory wells were drilled in Alaska's Arctic waters with no harm, and before strict standards, Salazar noted.
Salazar added that other Arctic nations like Canada, Russia and Norway were busy developing Arctic energy fields and that the U.S. should also be a player as long as protections are in place.
"These resources, if developed safely, can be important components in the 'all of the above' energy strategy," he said in a speech at the Norway meeting. The strategy was crafted after Republicans accused President Barack Obama of blocking traditional energy in favor of renewables like solar and wind.
The Arctic areas will be part of Interior's five-year offshore lease plan being sent to Congress on Thursday.
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The Canadians follow a simple rule for drilling in the Arctic which lowers the risk of environmental damage to near zero: they require companies to drill two holes instead of one so the relief well, the one that took months for BP to drill in the Gulf as oil gushed at 60,000 barrels a day, is already in place when the well is capped. Simple. But the US gov't is owned by the oil companies so they aren't required to protect the environment when they drill, only protect corporate profits. Yay Corporations! Yay Republicans! Let's get rid of the EPA so rules like this have no chance to be used. It is only a matter of time before what happens elsewhere, happens in the Arctic. Goodbye Earth, it was good knowing you. Sorry, but (Dutch) Shell's profits are much more important than you.
P.S. this patriotic talk about how this is "US Oil" shows how deluded the right wingers are.
I cant wait until mother Earth starts to shake off these parasites that keep drilling and disturbing her natural flow of things. It will happen. This planet is a living breathing entity and she will "Purge" herself. Its happened elsewhere. tick-tock.
The purging will begin in 132 days.
No...we're busy purging ourselves- and I think it's probably a pretty common pattern among supposedly sapient life- or the Fermi conundrum wouldn't even exist. Instead...silent skies. Chances are good that we're tripping merrily down the road to ruin- and that many better species have preceded us, all assured that they were the sole gems in the crown of creation. But if the planetary ecosystem survived the Permian- I'm referring to the period known as "The Great Dying" in which more than 99 percent of all species extant at that time just vanished (BIG asteroid off what's now Australia)- I think it'll survive us. Chordates might not- but life will go on.
Well, humans are as natural as can be. So is oil. And so are human activities. Does the ant that builds the anthhill hate himself for disturbing the soil? Does the otter that eats the shellfish hate himself for reducing the mollusk population? We are doing exactly what we do as a species by using resources. I cannot understand self-hating humans.
So...just wondering if, true to winger form, you might be the church going type. If so, here's a great inspirational bible verse for you anti environmentalist conservatives
Isaiah 24:4-6 - The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. (NIV)
I'm not a churchgoer, but I know the bible. That scortched-earth curse follows as a consequence of the Isrealites' violation of God's laws, being the ten commandments, Leviticus, etc. And, since Christians are under the new covenant, none of it applies to them. By your logic, then, the only way the environmental consequences set forth in that verse can be avoided is for the Jews to keep the law and/or everyone else to to accept the gospel. Are you going to keep the law or accept Christ to avoid environmental catastrophe? I didn't think so. So, why don't you address my questions rather than cherry-pick a bible verse that you clearly do not understand.
How many times does Obama has to stab you libs in the back before you tell him your vote is not guaranteed?
The President said that he was for expanding domestic energy exploitation so long as the companies doing so could that they could do it safely. With the oil companies' successful demonstration of its new safety containment system he would be going back on that commitment to say no.
My concern is who rating the test of the containment system and will go look up the parameters and results of the test. Deep waters in the Gulf are a different animal than those in the arctic. Ice sheets are a prime example of this. Also, whole towns are built around the fishing business up there. An oil spill could decimate local economies on a town or city level. At least the gulf had tourism to fall back on but Alaska is pretty isolated.
The teabaggers' baby was from Alaska. If there's a catastrophic spill that kills off all of the wildlife, all we have to do is shrug our shoulders and say "It's what Sarah wanted."
Drill it up! Any of you environmentalists crybabies ever been the ANWR? Didn't think so. At least O is moving in the right direction, even if it is election-year desperation. Too bad we can't trust him to do more of the same, or to not reverse position on this, in his lame duck.
I have. It's weirdly beautiful.and easy to fu(k up. leave it alone for once
How will drilling mess it up? And the geopolitical/economic cost is not worth preserving the entire ANWR area as an absolutely pristine weirdly beautiful area that nobody except you visits. Sorry. You're not that important.
Right on factcheckero! Let's sh!t all over that pristine beauty! Imma fill up my car!
Nobody here can answer a simple question. How will drilling mess up ANWR or sh!t on it? Have any of you seen an oil well or observed the exploratory process?
Yep, so far every flower in my garden has bloomed a month and a half ahead of time this year. Never saw that before in my life. The west is turning into a dry charred cinder, can't imagine what the poor wildlife is doing in CO. Meanwhile the east coast last year and FL this year are drowning in coastal deluges. Carbon in the atmosphere just hit 400 ppm which is widely considered to be a tipping point in the climate community. But hey....who said anything about global warming.? Let's go drill for some more oil.
Anthropogenic global warming is a myth.
Dunno about you, stud, but I'm a pretty sh!!ty hunter and gatherer. How primitively do you want to live? Right now, there's no substitute for hydrocarbon energy. I hope that there is one day and I suspect that there's been a lotta back room deals to maintain the status quo. Until a better lookin' partner shows up, we gotta dance with who we brought!
And if your dance partner is burning down your house... you just keep right on dancing! Woohoo! Hooray for fossil fuels!
Stupid decision in my opinion. Why can't we work on other forms of energy?
Why can't we do both?
Right with ya, sadmoronsvote2!
This is a huge mistake. These waters are pristine and if we pollute them with an oil spill like the BP one, we'll be in big trouble.
How in hell is the Socialist-In-Chief supposed to bring this economy to its knees with moves like this? Insert tongue firmly into cheek here!
and your head firmly up your posterior port
Perhaps you can tell me how the view is there?
I trust the oil companies to not totally, recklessly, needlessly screw it up. They will treat it with the loving care shown in the gulf, Algeria, Ecuador, and other places they have left there mark.
THIS IS A GREAT MOVE FROM A GREAT PRESIDENT AND ADMINISTRATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ; I GIVE ALL THE CREDIT OF THIS NEWS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok so we open up drilling in that area corpoare america gets is leases kills the enviroment and on to bigger and better right. Here is the question of the day We have already passed Peak on the supply side it is not like we can kill a few thousand dinosaurs let compost and create oil for us. at one point are we going to start forcing companies into sustainable energy. Once the oil runs out all the millions of automobiles will no longer run the plastics, replacement tires for your cars will be gone. The time is to move away from Dino energy and start focusing on sustainable energy.
More evidence that there is no difference between a democrat and a republican. Anybody notice how hot is? 114 degrees in Montana. I know it can't be global warming - but it's freaking hot.
the bell curve in action. the low lying fruit is gone. Now it's time to go for broke. I give oil another 50-60 years at best
Good thing we have all this natural gas then. Plentiful, cheap, clean. What more could you want in an energy source? There's the answer to your "peak oil" gobbledygook.
Sure NG is cheap but there won't be any clean water left to drink because of the fracking.
Wrong. Research fracking and you'll see that it occurs miles below the aquifer. Any issue with migration of natural gas into the aquifer is a casing problem. Fracking has nothing to do with it. Short of nuclear, which I'm sure you'll also have some complaints about, natural gas is the cleanest fuel out there.
OOoh quick quick, don't want the Russians to start drilling before the U.S. do we. Pathetic.
Why wait for 4 years? So the clown in charge wont have to deal with envionmentalist whackos? DO it now because its the right thing to do.
Ill bet ninety nine percent of you tree hugging whiners drive cars and use electricity,what a friggin joke you are.
I got rid of my car and now use a bicycle, does that make me a 1%? hmmm curiouser
This is allowed but the keystone xl is not. Friend of the environment my arse.
It stings when you realize that your party will compromise its core values for votes. Makes you wonder whether they have any core values at all, doesn't it?
lol, proof positive that even when repub's get what they want...they still like to find a way to blame Obama.
Earlier this week, there were posts about lower gas prices and rising house values...again, both were (according to the repub responders), Obama's 'fault' lol. The sun rose 2 minutes later today, than it did last week....yep, you guessed it...Obama's 'fault'. Predictable and way too funny, man!
Your comprehension is not very good. Ray was complaining about O from the environmentalist far-left of the democrat party. I only pointed out how easily O abandons his base for political expediency. Nobody blamed him for anything. See what you want to see though.
Great news!
And so progresses our jolly march towards ecologic ruin. Oh well, at least there will be some more jobs! Jobs that will totally... mean nothing as the Earth becomes an overheated wasteland.
...nevermind that! Yay!
It's cool that the President and his staff are doing this because now that will give him another talking point to repeat his mantra about this "I will permit drilling if it's done safely" and it's as simple as that!!!
Gee, I wonder how the Republicans are going to spin this into being a bad decision for Obama?
They yammer on about absolutely everything he does is bad. They say, "Obama needs to open up the Arctic for drilling!" Now that he has, they've got to have their spin doctors working furiously on how to spin this into it being the worst decision a POTUS could make.
Ready for it? Here's the spin: It is a good decision for the country. But a bad move for reelection because (a) it irritates the base (see whiny environmentalists comments above), and (b) it is a transparent attempt to buy independent votes in an election-year, when most who've been paying attention know he is hostile to exploration and will likely reverse course on this if reelected. Repubs are happy he made this decision, which is a good one, but know it won't help his campaign for reelection. There ya go.
Why did the administration wait almost three years, until just before election, to take action that can potentially improve the economy and result in more jobs.
Obama is doing what he does best, campaign.
He has tried to implement SEVERAL things recently just to boost his chance.
Too bad he has not figured out that most of us are not the idiots he thinks we are.
If this administration had not blocked drilling in approved leases we might not have had to pay $4.00 for gas a month ago. What are they going to do next to keep us dependent on foreign oil. Think of how many jobs would have been created without that drain on the economy. The job creation figures they have released have been proven to be largely puff. If we were not so dependent on high priced energy sources, the numbers might have been real.
Ok! America let's use up all of our resources and leave nothing for our future. NOT! The American Government = Greed. But not all Americans are greedy. And if people read news on the internet, gas prices are coming down. So, let's save something for the children and their future.
THIS IS A GREAT MOVE FROM A GREAT PRESIDENT AND ADMINISTRATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ; I GIVE ALL THE CREDIT OF THIS NEWS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!