(Image Source: Greenpeace )

BY JIM FLINK

 

For the first time in two decades, Shell is drilling for oil off the coast of Alaska.  The company calls it “historic.”  CNN’s Don Lemon shows us the map.

“It’s happening here in the Chukchi sea about 90 miles off Alaska’s northwest coast. Native Americans who live along the shoreline are worried about a spill similar to the one two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Shell posted this video to its YouTube page over the weekend showing the ship -- the “Noble Discoverer” -- lowering a large drill bit into the Arctic Sea. Federal officials estimate the offshore region holds nearly 27 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Shell officials have said the company has invested about $4.5 billion in the Alaska drilling project over a six-year period.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a one-year order allowing Shell to drill up to 1,400 feet deep.  HLN reports, environmentalists have battled to keep this early development from happening, with limited success.

“This is just preliminary drilling. Shell is years away from true oil production. Conservationists argue this is too fragile and important an ecosystem to take this kind of chance here.”

For now, the drilling is limited in scope.
And The Anchorage Daily News reports the burden is on Shell to perform safely.

“Shell won't be able to complete a single well in the Chukchi Sea this year unless the Interior Department grants its request for an extended season. It still is waiting to hear back. As it stands, Shell must stop drilling into oil-rich zones by Sept. 24.”

Still, opponents to the drilling have been lining up.  Most notably, environmental groups like Greenpeace , who launched its own ships to monitor the activity. The group notes...

“The burning of fossil fuels has caused our planet to heat up, changing the seasons and endangering millions of people; but oil companies see the ice free Arctic as a business opportunity, and are already moving in to start drilling under the ocean.”

And Alaskans themselves are also watching developments closely.
The Alaska Dispatch reports the drilling is taking place in federal waters for now, which means Alaska bears some of the risks, but limited rewards.’ ‘

“If something goes wrong and oily water starts lapping on Alaska’s Arctic shores, the state and its people will live with the aftermath, just as they did in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.”