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Page added on February 5, 2014
Victory for the Arctic Ocean: No Drilling Next Summer or Maybe Ever
The wild Arctic Ocean just got a blast of good news. Yesterday Shell Oil bowed to the inevitable and announced it will not be drilling for oil off the coast of Alaska this summer. Now the region’s coastal villages and its whales, dolphins, and polar bears will be spared a repeat of Shell’s disaster-laden attempt to drill two summers ago.
Shell’s decision follows on the heels of a federal court ruling last week. The court agreed with NRDC and our allies that the Bush administration wildly underestimated the potential for oil spills and other hazards when it decided to issue oil leases off Alaska’s remote north coast. That violates federal law and throws the whole lease program into limbo.
This opens up a priceless opportunity for the Obama administration. It is their chance to step back from a leasing program not of their making and develop a fresh approach to our last still-pristine ocean. Now they can fully protect this fragile and magical marine environment from the ravages of industrial development.
NRDC has long understood that that no company is a match for this remote and rugged region. The Arctic Ocean is beset by unpredictable currents, massive ice floes, high seas, and strong winds. No demonstrated technology exists to contain and clean up a serious spill in these seas.
Shell’s drill rig grounded off the coast of Alaska, January 2013
Shell had a frightening taste of some of these challenges when it tried to drill in 2012. Its rig had to flee from a 30-mile-long iceberg. Its emergency response equipment was “crushed like a beer can” during tests. Its ships leaked fuel. And its drill rig was grounded and battered by relatively routine winter weather.
The industry has witnessed Shell’s failures, and other oil giants have long since canceled or suspended their plans for the region. Shell was the last holdout—until Thursday’s announcement about the 2014 season.
I welcome these decisions, but we must protect the Arctic Ocean from drilling once and for all. If we fail, we stand to lose one of the most spectacular pieces of our natural heritage. And we’ll enable an oil binge that feeds climate disruption and threatens our communities with extreme weather.
We don’t have to sacrifice special places and court climate chaos to power our economy. Cars that go farther on a tank of gasoline are already helping us reduce our hunger for oil. Indeed, thanks to stronger fuel efficiency standards, our cars get 16 percent better gas mileage than they did in 2007. That will only increase as automakers prepare to meet the fleet average of 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025.
With these solutions in hand and the oil industry’s limitations more evident than ever, it is time to pull the Arctic Ocean out of America’s energy plans, now and for all generations to come.
Last summer I stood on the northernmost shores of the United States, gazing out over the pristine Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and hoped for this day. Now that it has come, we must persuade the Obama administration to seize it—to make the right and prudent choice and to end the folly of putting these, our vast and vibrant polar bear seas, at catastrophic risk.
7 Comments on "Victory for the Arctic Ocean: No Drilling Next Summer or Maybe Ever"
rockman on Wed, 5th Feb 2014 11:07 pm
“The industry has witnessed Shell’s failures, and other oil giants have long since canceled or suspended their plans for the region. Shell was the last holdout—until Thursday’s announcement about the 2014 season.” Last holdout??? Perhaps these folks should subscribe to Rig Zone so they might better keep up to date with Arctic drilling activity:
“Russia begins offshore drilling in Arctic – The landmark announcement marked the formal start of Russia’s long-planned effort to turn the vast oil and natural gas riches believed to be buried in the frozen waters into profits for its ambitious government-run firms. Gazprom made its announcement in a statement that stressed the company also had rights to 29 other fields it planned to exploit in Russia’s section of the Arctic seabed.”
Davy, Hermann, MO on Thu, 6th Feb 2014 12:01 am
I doubt we will ever see substantial offshore exploration in the artic. It may be possible in some sweet spots or very near shore. The specialty people and equipment is just not up to scale to make it happen and be cost effective. Look at what the Caspian Sea is costing the group of majors there now. Another hostile environment eating someone’s lunch. It is just too extreme in the arctic to be safe and cost effective.
I still believe we need to look at all option to soften the landing when the Energy decent hammers the global economy. So, I believe effort should be expended for the sweet spots and less hostile locations in the artic.
These environmentalist that talk about cars after they just won their battle annoys me. If these people want to be green talk about doing away with cars. You are not green if you have anything to do with a car. It is a joke to do the little green things people do then drive their car to the mall for an ice cream!
Welch on Thu, 6th Feb 2014 12:26 am
I hope I’m wrong but I think humans will dig up/drill all the hydrocarbons they can that are fit to burn, arctic one included. If you think very, VERY long term, burning these fuels as quickly as possible actually mitigate loss of biodiversity as compared to doing so over several hundred more years. Maybe we should double down and party like it’s 2999.
Makati1 on Thu, 6th Feb 2014 1:26 am
Until the Arctic is truly ice free all year round, it will be extremely difficult and expensive to drill there.
How do you stop an ice floe the size of Rhode Island from crushing your platform? Answer, you don’t. And Mother Nature does as she pleases, not as you desire.
Makati1 on Thu, 6th Feb 2014 1:27 am
I might add, that by the time it is ice free all year round, we will have more important problems than oil. Something called: ‘Survival’.
rollin on Thu, 6th Feb 2014 2:08 am
An addict will do anything and let nothing get in the way in the pursuit of the drug or the money to get the drug. No matter how much damage to himself and others around him.
Sound familiar?
This obsession with oil at the cost of everything else is a sickness.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Thu, 6th Feb 2014 12:33 pm
This obsession with oil at the cost of everything else is a sickness.
Rollin, If only we could all jump on an oil 12 step program. We are at this point because we have done what any other species may have done given an ecosystem advantage and that is expand population. I don’t see our species as any different. I reject exceptionalism or our species. I reject divine right to expand and fill the earth. If you look at world religions for the most part there are traditions of collapse and judgment. So we have an understanding of collapse in our traditions and real experience of collapse. It is only these days that we swagger and brag about being Human, our markets, our knowledge, and our technology. We talk of outposts on Mars and so many other feats yet to come. If we accept system theories and cycling of ecosystems then I see no other path but a pullback in population. How does this relate to the artic, well, the artic is like an outpost on Mars? I don’t think we have it in us to produce much in this last frontier considering the systematic risk challenges ahead. Who even knows if it will be ice free? Hell, it could freeze over if the ocean thermocline stops???? If the pullback starts around 2020 the arctic will hardly be developed based upon the long lead times to deploy productive capital.