Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Back off, Alaskan energy group tells Shell activists

Screen Shot 2015-06-03 at 22.15.31

Screen Shot 2015-05-25 at 21.27.36Back off, Alaskan energy group tells Shell activists

Shell plans to start drilling in Alaskan waters as early as this summer

By Daniel J. Graeber     |   June 3, 2015 at 8:08 AM

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 3 (UPI) — With pressure building on Shell’s port activity in Seattle, an Alaskan energy coalition said the state’s economy won’t be held hostage by external activists.

“We don’t like our economy being held hostage by activists from another state,” Anne Seneca, president of the Consumer Energy Alliance-Alaska, said in a statement.

With federal approval in hand, Shell said it may start its drilling campaign in the arctic waters off the coast of Alaska as early as this summer. Shell’s drilling rig, Polar Pioneer, is stationed at the Port of Seattle ahead of the program’s start. In mid-May, a flotilla of kayakers took to the waters off the coast of Seattle to protest Shell.

Advocacy group Friends of the Earth launched a legal challenge against the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for approving Shell’s exploration program.

“We argue that the agency failed to include potentially significant environmental effects, such as marine mammal distribution and habitat use, and failed to assess the particular risks of a large oil spill during the exploratory phase,” the group said in a statement.

Shell is proposing as many as six wells in a region known as the Burger prospect, located in shallow waters, using the Noble Discoverer and Polar Pioneer rigs.

Its drillship Kulluk struck ground off the Alaskan coast in 2012, and the U.S. Coast Guard blamed harsh winter conditions and the company’s efforts to escape Alaskan tax laws for the incident.

The Consumer Energy Alliance said it had the support of 13 other state organizations and 19 Alaskan lawmakers in backing Shell’s plans. With nearly 90 percent of the state revenue coming from energy resources, the coalition said the arctic program is critical to the success of the Alaskan economy.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker toured the Polar Pioneer drilling rig last week, saying arctic drilling “will happen.”

SOURCE

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.