"Shell screwed up in 2012 and we're not going to let them again": U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
“Shell screwed up in 2012 and we’re not going to let them screw up when they try to drill in the Arctic again,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told reporters today, releasing the findings of a departmental review of Shell Oil’s 2012 Arctic operations.
In 2012, Shell started drilling the first wells in the Alaskan Arctic in nearly two decades in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Shell’s goal for the summer drilling season was to confirm a major discovery of oil in commercially-viable quantities in the Alaskan Arctic Ocean.
Shell was not able to achieve its goal and did not complete any exploration wells. The company experienced major problems that raised what the review calls “serious questions regarding its ability to operate safely and responsibly in the challenging and unpredictable conditions offshore Alaska.”
Read story from Environment News Service here.
Hopefully the Harper-led sycophantic feds here will proceed with uncustomary due diligence when monitoring oil companies drilling in the Canadian Arctic (I won’t be holding my breath).