Shannyn Moore: "Shell's Money Play is on the Rocks" [View all]

[Blue_In_AK]

Shannyn does a great job of laying out Shell's problems with the Kulluk as well as the utter fiasco of this year's "drilling season." Good stuff and well worth reading, especially for people who haven't been following Shell's trials and tribulations. I wish the president and Ken Salazar would wise up to the dangers of drilling offshore in the Arctic.

http://www.adn.com/2013/01/05/2742778/shannyn-moore-shells-money-play.html

Royal Dutch Shell's Alaska operations could have used a dose of "local knowledge" to prevent their latest debacle: the grounding of the oil rig Kulluk. That phrase, "local knowledge," should ring a bell for Shell. The company was one of the largest contributors to a group opposing the restoration of Alaska's Coastal Zone Management program.

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I realize I'm swimming against the tide on the issue of offshore Arctic drilling. President Obama thinks it's a good idea and opened the area to leases after 20 years of closure. (Because he hates oil.) When asked about the safety of drilling in such a precarious place, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, "I believe there's not going to be an oil spill." Did he believe there would be a $400 million runaway oil rig stuck on a beach?

Our delegation in Washington, D.C., thinks it's a brilliant idea to drill in Arctic waters even though Alaska doesn't get the revenue - just the risk of a spill. Awesome.

Shell's oil spill prophylactics have failed miserably. The company's containment cap was tested in calm, ice-free waters. The 20-foot-tall dome "breached like a whale" and sank 120 feet, where it was "crushed like a beer can" by the pressure. Its containment barge was fined by the Coast Guard for spilling hydraulic fluid. When they ran aground in Dutch Harbor with the Noble Discoverer, the company denied it had run aground and then had tugs pull the ship off. The NTSB is investigating and Shell has lawyered up.

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Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/01/05/2742778/shannyn-moore-shells-money-play.html#storylink=cpy