Big news today for the Arctic. Shell announced that it will not be drilling for oil in the Arctic this year!1
Shell's long list of mishaps, accidents and broken promises in their rush to strike oil this year made clear what we already knew — there is no safe way to drill for oil in the Arctic, and the Obama Administration should not allow Shell or anyone else to do so.
In the past year, CREDO members sent more than half a million petition signatures to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and President Obama, and made thousands of calls last month to urge EPA not to cave on Shell's air pollution bait and switch.
Even as the Obama Administration allowed Shell to move forward and even weakened some rules, your pressure kept President Obama on notice that we were paying close attention and would hold him accountable for the future of the Arctic.
It's not all good news. Shell will remain in the Arctic for at least a few more weeks, to begin drilling the top holes in the wells that they intend to drill for oil next summer.
Shell began this work last week, and was forced to stop just hours later, after a 30 mile long iceberg began moving toward the drilling ship. But the last straw came over the weekend when Shell damaged its oil spill containment equipment during a routine test.
If these aren't strong enough warning signs for the Obama Administration and Shell to pick up on, then we'll have to keep the message going even louder.
We will not stop fighting until the Arctic is safe from dangerous and unnecessary offshore drilling.
Thank you for your activism, it makes a difference.
Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
1. "Shell Delays Arctic Oil Drilling Until Next Year". New York Times, 09/17/12.
What good news. Too bad that mile long iceberg did not take out their equipment altogether... maybe next time.
ReplyDeleteMama Nature can't be real excited about the idea of an oil spill in the arctic. Not to mention after the BP cluster&$#@ in the Gulf we all know now that a gushing undersea oil well is not easily capped!
Let's keep the pressure up and maybe we can prevent them from drilling next summer... unless Mittens is in the White House!