Shell Immunized against Drilling-Transmitted Diseases

Shell Granted Key Alaska Drilling License

Oil giant Shell receives federal air-quality license for Alaska Beaufort Sea drilling

EPA has granted Royal Dutch Shell Plc a federal air-quality permit that allows the giant oil company to carry out exploratory drilling in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.

A week after U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline declared that “the balance of hardships” is in favor of the BP and Shell, “who have invested significant time [never mind nature’s 4.55 billion year investment] and expense in preparing for the scheduled activities,” and dismissed lawsuit against exploration permits granted by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the MMS, two environmental groups filed a lawsuit on July 8,2008 against new federal regulations that grants permission to oil companies to disturb/destroy the polar bears and walrus in the Chukchi Sea. [Image: NOAA]

The permit, more like a vaccine for “Drilling-Transmitted Diseases,”  immunizes Shell against any and all of the air pollutants emitted from their drill vessel and dozens of  support ships that the company will be employing to drill two exploratory wells about 26 to 35km (16 to 22 miles)  off  Alaska’s northern coast.

“The Beaufort Sea permit—which Shell has been seeking for nearly four years—was granted a week after the EPA issued a similar permit for the company’s planned drilling operations this year in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwestern cost.” A report said.

The terms of permit stipulates that Shell shall  use “technological advances,” “ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel” and practice “other protective measures,” EPA officials were quoted as saying. [Wear a condom on their drill bits?]

“This permit ensures that exploration and drilling will occur in a way that protects air quality,” Rick Albright, director of the air, waste and toxics issues for EPA’s Seattle regional office, said in a statement.

The conditions of permit, of course,  pays lip service to environmental protection; they won’t and can’t prevent accidental oil spills, which have now become daily occurrences throughout the planet.

“The Beaufort permit is an important milestone, a Shell spokesman in Anchorage said, after the company spent $84 million on its Beaufort Sea leases and intends to drill prospects there called Sivulliq and Torpedo that are known to contain hydrocarbons.” The report stressed.

“The issuance of our final Beaufort Sea air permit means we can continue to advance our exploration program with the ultimate goal of drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in 2010,” Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.

The permit is reportedly issued subject to a public-review period and could be appealed by environmental concerns.

“Shell is seeking to use a single drill ship and a fleet of icebreakers, oil-spill-response ships and other support vessels to explore the Chukchi and Beaufort prospects. Drilling is planned for the summer and fall, times when sea ice is absent. The company plans to drill up to three wells about 75 miles offshore in the Chukchi, where it spent $2.1 billion in 2008 to acquire leases, and two wells in the Beaufort.” The report said

“Environmentalists and the native Inupiat Eskimo people of the region expressed concerns, as the permit was being drafted by the EPA, about carbon-dioxide emissions into a region already strongly affected by climate change, and the potential impact of pollutants on people who hunt and fish in the region for traditional foods.” The report added.

Although Shell requires other permits before  it can proceed with the vile acts of drilling at either of the two sites, those permits are considered to be much easier to obtain than the air-quality permits, that the company has been granted.

The Riddle of Big Oil and Energy Consumption:

1. Humans prosper at a much lower rate of energy consumption.
2. The ecosystems, what is left of them, function well  in the absence of fossil fuel pollution (pollution created by mining/drilling, transport and consumption of the fuels).
3. More mining and drilling creates more pollution.
4. The only prosperity associated with selling more fossil fuels is the sellers monetary gains.
5. The big oil companies are owned by a tiny fraction of the world population.
6. Why do the overwhelming majority of world population allow a tiny minority destroy the planet for monetary gains?

Can YOU can solve this riddle??

Related Links:

• Disasters Caused by Oil and gas Drilling, Oil Spills, Leaks, Land, Water and Air Pollution

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Big Oil Hires Top Environmental Assassins

John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman Hired by Drillers

Oil companies and industry groups have summoned the three Senators to instruct them on how to re-write the long-awaited climate and energy bill.

ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell Oil Co are demanding that states, rather than federal government, regulate shale gas drilling methods because they know it’s cheaper to buy state officials. States are known to be more lenient on allowing hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” which pollutes the water.

The big oil want a bill their way and they want it now.

“Within a couple weeks after the Easter break we hope to unveil a bill,” said the ever-complying Graham.

Lieberman, on the other hand, wants to dress the bill as even more environmental-friendly as the Big Oil have you believe.  He is aiming to have the bill introduced on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22. He gets a kick out of that sort of things!

“The longer we’ve talked about it, the more momentum we’ve gotten, but that won’t last forever, so we need to bring this thing to a conclusion,” Graham said.

Water Contamination from Shale Gas Drilling. Source. Image may be subject to copyright. “The major concern with shale gas drilling is the chemicals used in the process. Because the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, shale gas drillers don’t have to disclose what chemicals they use.”  Gas drilling companies maintain that the gas drilling technique they use, called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is safe. However, based on observation of the drinking water in numerous drilling areas, and the fate of many people who live near the drilling rigs, who are afflicted with serious health conditions, we know that fracking contaminates groundwater with dangerous chemicals.

Meanwhile, ten Senators from coastal states issued a statement Thursday saying they won’t support a climate and energy bill if it permits a large expansion of offshore oil and natural gas drilling. [How large is a little expansion?]

Senator Robert Casey, a Democrat, has vowed to defeat any move that provide  states with regulatory powers.

“If that kind of provision were in it, that would be an area where I would want to spend a good deal of time either altering it or removing it,” Casey told reporters.

“Kerry, the lead proponent of the bill, needs every vote he can get as it will likely face opposition from lawmakers in states whose economies depend heavily on fossil fuels.” Reuters said.

The oil companies are demanding that information concerning the chemical composition of fracking fluids should be kept secret and  revealed  to doctors or health officials only when necessary to save human life.

Further, the oil industry is pushing for large scale expansions in offshore drilling in the bill.

“Bruce Josten, a vice president at the Chamber of Commerce, told reporters he understood that the offshore oil part of the bill would set up two levels for states to say whether they want to participate in expanded oil drilling.” Reuters reported.

“The first would give states the opportunity to say whether they wanted to have new offshore oil drilling from their coasts up to 35 miles out.”

“A second level would let them veto drilling from 35 to 75 miles out, but Josten said this was still in discussion stages and he has not seen specific legislative language on any proposals.”

The House of Representatives passed a climate bill in June 2009, which heavily relies on the doomed carbon emissions trade system, however the bill has little support to pass in the Senate.

Related Links:

• NY sanity questioned as state plan shale gas drilling
• EPA admits water contaminated near gas-drilling sites
• ‘Diarrhea water’
• Residents of Dimock in rural Pennsylvania sue Cabot Oil & Gas Corp

• Big Oil Itching to Drill to the Last Straw
• Exxon Pays Peanuts to the Monkeys
• Magnitude 4.0 quake hits Utah near gas fields
• Oil Drilling Likely Caused Texas Earthquake
• NY Quakes Probably Gas Drilling Related

• Disasters Caused by Oil and gas Drilling, Oil Spills, Leaks, Land, Water and Air Pollution