President Obama, Global Warming and Shell Oil

Dear Friends,

As you undoubtedly know, President Obama recently granted Shell the right to drill in the Arctic Ocean.  You can read about it in The New York Times (here).  President Obama's decision is wrong on many levels.  The two biggest ones are that he is encouraging dangerous drillng for fossil fuels which will further accelerate global warming, and he is letting one of the companies with the worst safety records do that drilling.  What is he thinking?

While President Obama talks a lot about a balanced approach to energy and combating climate change, his actual policies are not balanced.  They support more fossil fuels.  In addition to permitting Shell to drill in the Arctic Ocean, President Obama is pushing to open up drilling on both the east and west coasts of the United States.  Under his watch, the United States has become the largest oil and gas producer in the world.  Is there really any hope that he will stop the Keystone XL Pipeline? There is no balance.  There is no attempt to fight climate change. There is only continued support and encouragement to the fossil fuel industry.  A simple Google search will confirm this fact, but if you want a quick read, here is an article published by U.S. News & World Report (here) entitled "Arctic Drilling Undercuts Obama's Global Warming Efforts, Experts Say".

There is no safe way to drill in the Arctic.  Here is ABC's summary of a widely quoted report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency within our government (the Obama Administration) that is supposed to be the expert.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that approved Shell’s plan for drilling in the Chukchi Sea, admitted in a February report that there was a “75% chance of one or more large spills” occurring in the area over the next 77 years.

The drill site is over 1,000 miles from the nearest Coast Guard site that could work to constrain a spill.  So we essentially know that we will do permanent and incredible damage to this area, and yet we are approving the drilling.

To add insult to injury, President Obama granted the right to drill in very dangerous conditions to Shell Oil whose safety record is abysmal.  Here are a few highlights of Shell's Arctic Ocean drilling for 2012 from the Natural Resources Defense Fund (here):

July 2012 - Shell Oil's Noble Discoverer drill ship drags anchor and nearly drifts ashore in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
September 2012 - Caught off guard by sea ice, Shell is forced to halt drilling – just one day after it started.
September 2012 - In an initial test in Puget Sound, WA, Shell's Arctic oil spill containment system is "crushed like a beer can."
October 2012 - The CEO of French oil giant Total says drilling in the Arctic is too risky.
November 2012 - Noble Discoverer catches fire.
December 31, 2012 - Kulluk drilling rig breaks loose from tow lines five times in heavy storm and runs aground off Kodiak Island, Alaska.

The problem is clearly summarized in the following paragraphs from The New York Times article entitled "Shell's Record Adds to the Anger of Those Opposing Arctic Drilling" (here)

[Environmentalists] said that the company’s track record in the Arctic should rule out another chance for it. Shell tried to drill in the Arctic in 2012, and the company’s multibillion-dollar drilling rig, the Kulluk, ran aground. The operator of a drill ship hired by Shell also pleaded guilty to eight felony offenses and agreed to pay $12.2 million over shoddy record-keeping that covered up hazardous conditions and jury-rigged equipment that discharged polluted water.

“Shell has already proven itself not up to the challenge of development in the Arctic Ocean,” said Franz Matzner, the director of the Beyond Oil Initiative at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But it’s not just Shell. The fact is, there’s no safe way to pursue oil exploration in the frozen wastes of the Arctic Ocean.”

He added, “This is an inexplicable decision to do something that is dirty, dangerous and unnecessary.”

Every day I wonder more and more what happened to the candidate Obama who I so wholeheartedly supported.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal