Patti Epler: Jul 27, 2011
Environmental groups earlier this week challenged oil companies to prove they can clean up an oil spill in the Arctic. The challenge is all part of a ramped-up public relations and political effort by a coalition of more than a dozen national conservation organizations to pressure the Obama administration into rejecting industry permit applications for work in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas next summer.
So it’s unlikely Shell Oil and the other companies will pick up that particular gantlet — and how would they, really. Short of dumping some oil out there and mopping it up or burning it off how does one prove they can clean up a spill?