Why Has Ken Salazar Allowed British Petrolium To Drill In the Arctic?!!
Joseph Raglione
July 11, 2010
Why Has Ken Salazar Allowed British Petrolium To Drill In the Arctic?!!
By human4us - Jul 8, 2010 1:36:28 PM ET
Gentle readers within this American government, I did not like Texas Senator Ken Salazar's policies from the beginning, because from the beginning, Salazar has been a proponent of Oil exploration and drilling. Now, I discover the truth and so will the rest of the World...>
Dear Joseph,
As if it weren't busy enough dealing with the greatest environmental disaster this country has ever seen, in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is planning to drill brand new ultra-extended-reach wells in the Arctic this year. What's more, Secretary Ken Salazar's Interior Department has done nothing to stop it.
In the hopes of drilling what would be the longest horizontal wells ever drilled, BP has built the most powerful drillship in the world and shipped it up to the Arctic for its latest project, which it dubs "Liberty." Like the ultra-deepwater well in the Gulf that led to the catastrophe there, BP's proposed Liberty project requires dangerous, untested technology that is far from foolproof. And as in the Gulf, the federal agency charged with overseeing oil activities has been too cozy with the oil companies in Alaska. In fact, it has recently come to light that the Interior Department allowed BP to write much of the environmental review for the Liberty project.
If something were to go wrong in the Arctic, BP simply could not deal with it. BP and the federal government have their hands completely tied trying to deal with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It would make absolutely no sense to allow the company to launch new, untested technology in the Arctic while it is still struggling to stop, contain and clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf. A wide variety of species found nowhere but the Arctic make their home near BP's Liberty project, including polar bears, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of the drastic loss of their sea-ice habitat. A Gulf-sized oil spill in the Arctic could spell disaster for struggling polar bears and other Arctic species.
Please join the Center for Biological Diversity in asking Secretary Salazar to deny BP's permit to drill this year and defer any future drilling until he can guarantee the Arctic is safe.
Click here to find out more and take action.
If you have trouble following the link, go to http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4257.
Sample letter:
Subject: Don't Let BP Oil the Arctic
I request that you, as head of the Department of the Interior, deny BP's application to drill for the Liberty production drilling project, slated to begin this fall in the Alaskan Arctic. The ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has called into question BP's assurances about safety and response capability. Interior should therefore reject BP's current Liberty drilling plan and defer any future consideration of the project until the federal government has completed a full environmental review that realistically takes into account BP's response capabilities in the Arctic.
I further request that you defer any future approval until and unless you can ensure that BP can devote adequate resources to any incident that might occur in the Arctic. Given that BP is currently overwhelmed with the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the earliest that could happen is after the oil spill in the Gulf has been stopped and all oil containment, recovery and cleanup efforts are complete.
BP has described its Arctic Liberty project as "one of its biggest challenges to date." If the project goes forward, Liberty's ultra-extended reach wells will be the longest ever attempted. In order to drill these unprecedented wells, BP had to commission the building of the largest drilling rig in the world. Once drilled, BP's horizontal wells will be more prone than traditional wells to gas kicks, which are the most common cause of blowouts.
Despite the inherent dangers in experimenting with this untested technology, the Interior Department's environmental review of the Liberty project was lax at best. BP in fact wrote its own environmental assessment of the impacts of the Liberty project. Not surprisingly, BP found that there would be no significant impacts from the project and that the possibility of an oil spill was low.
If anything, the Arctic is even more vulnerable to an oil spill than the Gulf of Mexico. There is no technology for cleaning oil in broken ice conditions. The sea-ice environment is extremely dynamic, and the Arctic is subject to dangerous weather conditions, including high winds and storms, that could seriously complicate any response to a spill. What's more, there isn't the infrastructure or capacity to respond. The nearest Coast Guard station is more than 1,000 miles away in Kodiak, and much of the oil spill response equipment in the Arctic is more than 20 years old. Until BP makes an affirmative showing, verified by the Department of the Interior, that it is capable and ready to respond to a significant oil spill in the Arctic, the Liberty project should not move forward.
The Interior Department has the legal right, as well as the responsibility, to deny BP's application to drill at Liberty this year and defer future approvals until it can guarantee there will not be a BP disaster in the Arctic. Lax environmental review of BP's drilling plans led to the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of this country. The Department of the Interior must not allow BP to take its chances in the Arctic.
Donate now to support our work.
Arctic offshore drilling "island" photo courtesy BP.
This message was sent to human4us@sympatico.ca.
The Center for Biological Diversity sends newsletters and action alerts through DemocracyinAction.org. Let us know if you'd like to change your email list preferences or stop receiving action alerts and newsletters from us.
Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
1-866-357-3349
By human4us - Jul 8, 2010 1:36:28 PM ET
Gentle readers within this American government, I did not like Texas Senator Ken Salazar's policies from the beginning, because from the beginning, Salazar has been a proponent of Oil exploration and drilling. Now, I discover the truth and so will the rest of the World...>
Dear Joseph,
As if it weren't busy enough dealing with the greatest environmental disaster this country has ever seen, in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is planning to drill brand new ultra-extended-reach wells in the Arctic this year. What's more, Secretary Ken Salazar's Interior Department has done nothing to stop it.
In the hopes of drilling what would be the longest horizontal wells ever drilled, BP has built the most powerful drillship in the world and shipped it up to the Arctic for its latest project, which it dubs "Liberty." Like the ultra-deepwater well in the Gulf that led to the catastrophe there, BP's proposed Liberty project requires dangerous, untested technology that is far from foolproof. And as in the Gulf, the federal agency charged with overseeing oil activities has been too cozy with the oil companies in Alaska. In fact, it has recently come to light that the Interior Department allowed BP to write much of the environmental review for the Liberty project.
If something were to go wrong in the Arctic, BP simply could not deal with it. BP and the federal government have their hands completely tied trying to deal with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It would make absolutely no sense to allow the company to launch new, untested technology in the Arctic while it is still struggling to stop, contain and clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf. A wide variety of species found nowhere but the Arctic make their home near BP's Liberty project, including polar bears, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of the drastic loss of their sea-ice habitat. A Gulf-sized oil spill in the Arctic could spell disaster for struggling polar bears and other Arctic species.
Please join the Center for Biological Diversity in asking Secretary Salazar to deny BP's permit to drill this year and defer any future drilling until he can guarantee the Arctic is safe.
Click here to find out more and take action.
If you have trouble following the link, go to http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4257.
Sample letter:
Subject: Don't Let BP Oil the Arctic
I request that you, as head of the Department of the Interior, deny BP's application to drill for the Liberty production drilling project, slated to begin this fall in the Alaskan Arctic. The ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has called into question BP's assurances about safety and response capability. Interior should therefore reject BP's current Liberty drilling plan and defer any future consideration of the project until the federal government has completed a full environmental review that realistically takes into account BP's response capabilities in the Arctic.
I further request that you defer any future approval until and unless you can ensure that BP can devote adequate resources to any incident that might occur in the Arctic. Given that BP is currently overwhelmed with the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the earliest that could happen is after the oil spill in the Gulf has been stopped and all oil containment, recovery and cleanup efforts are complete.
BP has described its Arctic Liberty project as "one of its biggest challenges to date." If the project goes forward, Liberty's ultra-extended reach wells will be the longest ever attempted. In order to drill these unprecedented wells, BP had to commission the building of the largest drilling rig in the world. Once drilled, BP's horizontal wells will be more prone than traditional wells to gas kicks, which are the most common cause of blowouts.
Despite the inherent dangers in experimenting with this untested technology, the Interior Department's environmental review of the Liberty project was lax at best. BP in fact wrote its own environmental assessment of the impacts of the Liberty project. Not surprisingly, BP found that there would be no significant impacts from the project and that the possibility of an oil spill was low.
If anything, the Arctic is even more vulnerable to an oil spill than the Gulf of Mexico. There is no technology for cleaning oil in broken ice conditions. The sea-ice environment is extremely dynamic, and the Arctic is subject to dangerous weather conditions, including high winds and storms, that could seriously complicate any response to a spill. What's more, there isn't the infrastructure or capacity to respond. The nearest Coast Guard station is more than 1,000 miles away in Kodiak, and much of the oil spill response equipment in the Arctic is more than 20 years old. Until BP makes an affirmative showing, verified by the Department of the Interior, that it is capable and ready to respond to a significant oil spill in the Arctic, the Liberty project should not move forward.
The Interior Department has the legal right, as well as the responsibility, to deny BP's application to drill at Liberty this year and defer future approvals until it can guarantee there will not be a BP disaster in the Arctic. Lax environmental review of BP's drilling plans led to the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of this country. The Department of the Interior must not allow BP to take its chances in the Arctic.
Donate now to support our work.
Arctic offshore drilling "island" photo courtesy BP.
This message was sent to human4us@sympatico.ca.
The Center for Biological Diversity sends newsletters and action alerts through DemocracyinAction.org. Let us know if you'd like to change your email list preferences or stop receiving action alerts and newsletters from us.
Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
1-866-357-3349
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