tagged w/ SPILL BABY SPILL
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In another stark warning about the dangers of Arctic Ocean drilling, the German bank WestLB announced on Friday that it would not provide financing to any offshore oil or gas drilling in the region. The company’s sustainability manager said the “risks and costs are simply too high.”
The decision was made just a week after insurance giant Lloyd’s of London issued a report concluding that offshore drilling in the Arctic would “constitute a unique and hard-to-manage risk” and urged companies to “think carefully about the consequences of action” before exploring for oil in the region.
Dustin Neuneyer, sustainability manager at the corporate and investment bank WestLB, explained the decision to Environmental Finance:
“The further you get into the icy regions, the more expensive everything gets and there are risks that are hard to manage.… There are projects that are evidently unsustainable in an encompassing sense. For WestLB, the risks and costs are simply too high.”
The bank’s new eight-point policy on offshore drilling lays out specific criteria for the projects and companies that are eligible for financing — excluding any exploration or production activities in areas where the average temperature for the warmest month is below 10°C (50° F). Additionally, the policy’s criteria — which are binding for any company seeking a loan — require companies to use the best available technology, abide by the highest technical safety standards, and show that activities are validated by an independent third party.
The concerns raised by Lloyd’s of London and WestLB come as Royal Dutch Shell prepares to drill in Arctic waters off the coast of Alaska this summer. The recommendations of these institutions echo those in the recent Center for American Progress report, Putting a Freeze on Arctic Ocean Drilling: America’s Inability to Respond to an Oil Spill in the Arctic.
The dearth of supporting infrastructure throughout Alaska’s North Slope — including ports, roads, railroads, and permanent Coast Guard facilities — coupled with the lack of sound science and extremely volatile conditions make any potential offshore operations precarious at best. The remote location, harsh and unpredictable conditions, and absence of proven clean-up technologies designed for Arctic conditions would make large-scale response efforts nearly impossible.
Those factors represent a cost and risk WestLB isn’t willing to shoulder.
The stakes are high for Royal Dutch Shell, which after spending nearly five years and $4 billion, will likely soon receive the necessary permits for exploratory drilling in the remote Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. And other oil giants aren’t far behind — Exxon and ConocoPhillips are aiming to start offshore operations in the pristine Arctic Ocean by 2013.
WestLB might be the first bank to explicitly refuse financing for offshore drilling in the Arctic, but they may not be alone for long. “Other banks contacted us and are very interested in this approach and policy,” Neuneyer told Environmental Finance.
How many influential corporate voices will have to raise concerns before someone hits the pause button on Arctic Ocean drilling?
by Kiley KrohIn another stark warning about the dangers of Arctic Ocean drilling, the German bank... more
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Rachel Maddow explains why internet rumors that oil is evaporating into rain clouds and showering the land are false.Rachel Maddow explains why internet rumors that oil is evaporating into rain clouds... more
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ABC News outfitted a diving team with special hazmat suits and sent them to the Gulf to see the damage the oil leak and subsequent cleanup are causing underwater. They found that the leaking oil is combining with the cleanup chemicals to form a toxic soup.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4f_1274818068ABC News outfitted a diving team with special hazmat suits and sent them to the Gulf... more
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OIL SPILLS ON THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW:
The other day on the Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)... Rachel took her viewers into the dark history of past oil spills. I had no idea there were so many. Where was I, while the oil companies were busy drilling and spilling? Ms Maddow does our country a great service by reminding us how negligent Big Corporations have become since deregulation has been used so frequently in a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch ours." While the politicians and the corporate world are busy scratching for scratch… Earth, our one and only home, takes all kinds of abuse so these scratchers can continue to make as much money as possible without little regard for us or our home, the planet Earth. Please watch these videos and become enlightened via the Rachel Maddow Show. thinkingblueOIL SPILLS ON THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW:
The other day on the Rachel Maddow Show... more
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Shell Oil is ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer and asked a federal appeals court Thursday to rule quickly on a challenge by environmentalists concerned about the risk of a major spill after the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Kathleen Sullivan, an attorney for Shell, said the company has spent at least $3.5 billion on Alaska operations in the past few years as it prepares for exploratory drilling set for July in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
"Shell has waited years to recover its investment," Sullivan told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland. "We're ready to go."
"I'm sure Shell would like to win," replied Chief Judge Alex Kozinski.
But a coalition of environmentalists and Native Alaska groups who are challenging the drilling plans told the court the federal Minerals Management Service failed to consider the potential threat to wildlife and the risk for disaster before it approved the Shell project.
Christopher Winter, an attorney for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, said the Interior Department agency "simply ignored key aspects" about the possible effects of drilling operations on bowhead whales, including interruption of feeding patterns.
David Shilton, a Justice Department lawyer representing the minerals service, responded by saying studies have shown noise from drilling has only a "temporary and minor" effect on the whales, whose population is healthy and has been increasing.
Deirdre McDonnell, the attorney for the Native Village of Point Hope in Alaska, the lead petitioners in the case, argued that Shell had not made adequate plans to deal with an emergency, such as a major spill.
The Shell plan, for example, "doesn't say what happens if the drill ship is disabled or has sunk," McDonnell told the judges.
She also said government did not consider the cumulative impact of drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
Sullivan argued, however, the government must consider the facts at hand rather than "speculative" future impact and Shell has made extensive plans that include dealing with "the remote and infinitesimal likelihood of a spill."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced last December the Minerals Management Service had conditionally approved plans by Shell to drill three exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea, saying environmentally responsible exploration is a key component of reducing dependence on foreign oil.
Conditional approval for exploration in the Beaufort Sea came last October, as part of the development of oil leases sold under the Bush administration and upheld by the Obama administration in March.Shell Oil is ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer and asked a federal... more
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Two Louisiana shrimpers have filed a lawsuit accusing the operators of the rig behind a Gulf of Mexico oil spill of negligence, seeking millions of dollars in damages.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court late Wednesday, alleges that "the fire, explosion and resulting oil spill was caused by the joint negligence and fault" of the defendants, a copy of the document read.
The shrimpers are seeking class-action status on behalf of "all Louisiana residents who live or work in, or derive income from," the Louisiana coastal zone, and who have sustained losses as a result of the oil spill.
Defendants in the suit include British energy giant BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon platform which sank last week causing the spill, rig owner Transocean, and Cameron International, the company which manufactured a key safety valve that failed to fully shut off the oil.
The plaintiffs are seeking "economic and compensatory damages in amounts to be determined at trial, but not less than five million dollars," the legal minimum, the document said.
A BP executive on Thursday agreed with a US government estimate that the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico could be pumping up to 5,000 barrels a day of crude into the ocean, far more than previously thought.
The Deepwater Horizon platform sank April 22, two days after a huge explosion that killed 11 workers, and a giant oil slick from the site threatens to pollute Louisiana's fragile wetlands.
Among other things, the lawsuit claims that the defendants failed to operate the oil rig properly; failed to properly inspect the rig "to assure that its equipment and personnel were fit for the intended purpose"; acted "in a careless and negligent manner without due regard for the safety of others"; failed to "react to danger signs"; and employed "untrained or poorly trained employees."
Furthermore, "the fire, explosion, sinking and resulting oil spill were caused by defective equipment," and the defendants "knew or should have known of these defects and ... are therefore liable for them."
Daniel Becnel, a Louisiana-based trial lawyer who filed the suit, saying that the plaintiffs "have a whistleblower on an adjoining rig saying 85 percent of the drilling pipe was not properly inspected" by the US Minerals Management Service.
"We knew that BP and Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon weren't telling the truth," said Becnel.
continuedTwo Louisiana shrimpers have filed a lawsuit accusing the operators of the rig behind... more
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Conservation and Alaska Native groups called for a timeout on oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea yesterday, filing a legal challenge against Shell Oil's permit to drill in the region next summer. The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) approved drilling in the Chukchi Sea after doing only an abbreviated and internal review of its potential harms and despite significant concerns surrounding Shell's oil leases.
Last spring, a federal appeals court told the Interior Department that it needed to take a more complete look at how oil and gas development would harm the area's environment -– an assignment the Interior Department has not finished despite moving forward with approving Shell's drilling. Additionally, the lease sale for the leases on which Shell would drill is also the subject of unresolved litigation in the Alaska Federal District Court.
Under Shell's plan, a huge 514-foot-long drill ship and an armada of support vessels and aircraft would patrol the waters of the icy Arctic Ocean, generating industrial noise in the ocean, emitting tons of air pollutants, including heat-trapping gases, and thousands of barrels of water pollutants. The Chukchi Sea is habitat for endangered bowhead whales, threatened polar bears, walrus and a host of other wildlife -- many of which are vital to sustaining the thousands-year old subsistence way of life of Alaska Native coastal communities.
Shell's plan to drill in the Chukchi Sea is part of a larger Arctic drilling program slated to begin in 2010. Last October, Secretary Salazar also approved Shell's plan to drill up to three wells in the Beaufort Sea in 2010, also after only cursory environmental review. In December, conservation and Alaska Native groups challenged that approval.
In addition to the Interior Department's approval of Shell's drilling, Shell still needs air emissions and ocean discharge permits from the Environmental Protection Agency. It also needs marine mammal harassment permits from the National Marine Fisheries Service. These agencies can take a different path than Interior.
Secretary Salazar's approval of Shell's drilling also runs directly counter to other federal agencies' initiatives to manage the region with a science-based approach, including a protective Arctic Fisheries Management Plan adopted by the Department of Commerce.
The Arctic is a region under great stress from climate change. The Arctic ecosystem depends on sea ice to thrive. As climate change ravages the region -- the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world -- this sea ice melts at a rapid pace. Scientists now predict that summer sea ice could be gone within a decade, threatening the very existence of species such as polar bears, seals, and walrus, that make the ice their home. Industrial development in these waters will only compound the problems.
Shell's drilling would take place directly in the endangered bowhead whale's migration pathway through the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. It threatens harm to bowheads, including mothers and calves, walrus, and other marine species and to Alaska Native communities that depend on these species for their subsistence way of life.
Shell's drilling brings the threat of oil spills. Nonetheless, MMS downplays the risks and impacts of large oil spills, claiming that large spills simply won't happen during exploration. However, if a large oil spill were to happen, there is no technology and little capacity to adequately clean it up in the Arctic's icy conditions. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen noted in a recent Senate committee field hearing in Alaska that this lack of capacity to clean up a spill in the Arctic could spell disaster for the Arctic's pristine waters.Conservation and Alaska Native groups called for a timeout on oil drilling in the... more
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