Fantastic news: Shell has announced that it will NOT attempt to drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer.
The oil giant’s stunning reversal came after a momentous court ruling two weeks ago. The federal court agreed with NRDC and our allies that the Bush Administration had wildly underestimated the risks of spills and other hazards when it opened the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea to oil leasing and exploration in 2008.
Simply put: the entire Arctic leasing program was based on a fiction -- as we have long claimed -- and all the leases, including Shell’s, have now been thrown into limbo.
The court victory and Shell’s retreat are huge steps forward in our campaign to close Alaska’s Polar Bear Seas -- the Beaufort and Chukchi -- to oil development and potential catastrophe.
And we have you to thank! You have stood with us every step of the way, lending your generous financial support to a tough battle against two administrations and Big Oil that has raged in and out of the courtroom for five years. We never gave up because we know just how much is at stake.
The Beaufort and Chukchi Seas are home to more than half of America’s polar bears. Their populations are already reeling from global warming. The last thing they need is a catastrophic oil spill.
And if Shell’s Arctic venture has proven anything, it’s that this remote and rugged region is no place for drilling. In 2012, Shell’s rig had to flee from a 30-mile-long iceberg. Its emergency response equipment was “crushed like a beer can” during tests. And its drill rig ran aground during relatively routine winter weather.
Other oil giants -- including ConocoPhilips and Statoil, the Norwegian multinational oil company -- have long since canceled or suspended their plans. Shell was the last holdout -- until this latest announcement.
But make no mistake: While Shell has called off this summer’s operations, it is far from ruling out another attempt.
That’s why it’s so crucially important for the Obama Administration to slam the door shut on Arctic drilling by putting it completely off-limits to Big Oil.
This latest federal court decision hands President Obama a golden opportunity to move beyond a failed Bush Administration policy and to safeguard the Arctic for the sake of our spectacular natural heritage and our embattled climate.
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