The one-month strong oil gusher in the gulf has me poring over news articles to try to understand the full story. I find that the New York Times has a lot of information and good articles, as does NPR, the Audubon Society and so many others. The NY Times published an important story on exploratory drilling that is slated to take place in the next few months in the Arctic's Beaufort and Chukchi Seas if Shell Oil has its way.
The article is entitled "Arctic Drilling Proposal Advanced Amid Concern," and can be found at this link.
Basically, permitting is underway to allow Shell Oil to begin exploratory drilling in the Arctic's Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. This despite several problems with the permitting process. According to the article, a GAO review was corroborated by interviews with MMS employees (some who no longer work there).
The lack of clear guidance in the environmental review process was exacerbated by high turnover among scientists at the agency, many of whom said in interviews that they left for other jobs because they had been pressured to rewrite their work or had it rewritten for them and that they were perceived as obstacles in the way of drilling. Managers, on the other hand, tended to stay.
"My impression was they had predetermined decisions and if you didn’t get with the program you were sort of labeled and ostracized, really," said one former minerals agency scientist. "But if you went along with the program and didn’t do anything to obstruct anything, they would treat you well, promote you, give cash awards."
No surprise, in light of the scandals at MMS, but the audacity of the Shell Oil execs is summed up in the final paragraphs at the end of page two of the article.
The Shell project still faces scrutiny by other agencies that have raised questions about Arctic drilling. In a letter to Minerals Management last September, Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warned against leasing in the Arctic Sea.
Shell has vowed to implement aggressive efforts both to prevent a spill and contain one. Shortly after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proposed reconfiguring the agency, John Goll, the head of the Alaska region, called an "all hands" meeting, according to a staff member there.
Afterward, people lingered to eat a cake decorated with the words, "Drill, Baby, Drill."
The callousness and disregard for the places in which they want to drill is on full display here. Change.org has a petition to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that opposes this drilling project, you can find it at this link.
Please take action. OUR gulf and our arctic seas do not belong to these oil company executives.