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Report details Arctic drilling hazards
A big new Pew Environment Group report finds that oil-and-gas drilling in Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast would present hazards that the industry and federal agencies are ill-equipped to address.
The report is part of a green group campaign to counter political pressure on the Interior Department to allow Royal Dutch Shell and other companies to drill there.
They include: beefed-up analysis of Arctic ecosystems and sensitivity to spills, better accident-response planning and “full-scale deployment exercises under a range of offshore Arctic conditions to determine the limits for safely and effectively mounting a large-scale offshore response.”
“The Gulf of Mexico catastrophe showed us the consequences of lax oversight and inadequate response capacity, even in temperate waters near population centers,” Marilyn Heiman, director of Pew’s U.S. Arctic Program, said in a statement Wednesday.
“Sites proposed for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic Ocean are some of the most remote areas on earth, and the challenges of drilling are formidable. Until reforms ensure that oil companies can respond to significant spills in real-world conditions, all proposed oil and gas leasing, exploration and development in the U.S. Arctic should be delayed,” she added.
The report comes as Shell presses Interior for a green light to begin drilling in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s northern coast next year, an effort that includes a major ad campaign and other steps.
Shell had hoped to drill this year, but Interior has slowed the company’s plans.
Interior says it is taking needed steps to ensure drilling safety and environmental protection in the wake of the catastrophic BP oil spill. The agency has issued several new safety requirements in recent months.
Also, before the BP spill, Interior in March nixed four upcoming lease sales in Arctic waters, citing the need for more study of development there, even as it announced plans to allow wider offshore leasing in the 2012-2017 period.
Shell is pledging to have robust accident response systems in place — and frequently notes it is seeking to drill in waters vastly shallower than the 5,000-foot depth of BP’s ill-fated Macondo well in the Gulf.
Michael Bromwich, Interior’s top offshore drilling regulator, on Tuesday told the presidential commission probing the BP spill that federal decisions about how to proceed in the Arctic are coming soon.
“We've had meetings in the Department of Interior very recently. And we have additional discussions that are going to be held in the very near future. I think people understand that there is a desire for and a need for clarity. And we will try to provide that as quickly as we can,” said Bromwich, who heads Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
He told the panel — called the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling — that the oil-and-gas potential off Alaska is “substantial,” but added that the region presents “special challenges” around spill response, sensitive marine species and others areas.
Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) has repeatedly pressed the White House to allow drilling in the icy waters off his state’s northern coast.
He quickly attacked Pew’s call for a delay while noting some of its other recommendations mirror his legislation to expand safeguards.
“I disagree with Pew’s insistence on an unspecified moratorium on Arctic development, because the perfect set of conditions simply never occurs. I’ll continue to push the Obama administration for responsible Arctic development now to help meet America’s energy, national and economic security,” Begich said in a statement Wednesday.
