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Obama Administration’s Plan for Arctic Offshore Drilling Safety: “I Believe There’s Not Going to Be an Oil Spill”
Climate Progress / News Report
Published: Sunday 1 July 2012
Shell has faced more legal prosecutions for safety and environmental transgressions than any other major oil company drilling offshore in the North Sea.
With virtually no infrastructure available to clean up an oil spill in the sensitive Arctic, the Obama Administration is still pushing to get offshore drilling projects developed in the region.
What’s the messaging strategy from the Administration? Trust Shell.
Talking to reporters about exploration permits for Arctic waters yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar summed up the Administration’s approach: “I believe there’s not going to be an oil spill.”
Really?
Shell has faced more legal prosecutions for safety and environmental transgressions than any other major oil company drilling offshore in the North Sea.
And let’s remember, the Arctic is a place where the Coast Guard has warned “if [a spill] were to happen … we’d have nothing. We’re starting from ground zero today.”
Heck, even one of the world’s largest insurance pools refuses to back offshore drilling operations in the Arctic, saying the environment is “highly sensitive to damage” and that the risk is “hard to manage.”
Discussing the technique of foreshadowing, Russian playwright Anton Chekhov once wrote: “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.”
As we see in the graphic below, Obama already proved himself a master of foreshadowing in the lead up to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Let’s hope Salazar doesn’t do the same. (Hat tip to Greenpeace’s Joe Smyth for the image).
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By Kiley Kroh
9 comments on "Obama Administration’s Plan for Arctic Offshore Drilling Safety: “I Believe There’s Not Going to Be an Oil Spill”"
July 02, 2012 8:57am
Faith based charity is one thing. Faith based schools are another. But faith based energy policy? That's a whole new fish in the sea. Yobama must be pandering both the oil pumpers and bible thumpers on that one.
July 01, 2012 10:42pm
Obama should have taken some science courses at Harvard. He's pushing for more technical graduates to take us into the 21st Century. He might do well to follow his own advice and learn something about real clean energy instead of believing what the fossil fools whisper in his ear.
July 01, 2012 6:43pm
LIFE 101: " Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong, sooner or later, and if a cut-costs-at-every-turn and to-hell-with-safety-we're-insured corporation is involved ... it'll be sooner.
WA
July 01, 2012 6:09pm
Oil, oil, oil. And in 30 years the world will have all the cheap energy it wants, from Solar Panels! Obama doesn't seem to realize he's a shoe-in for this election, last Thursday began tougher American sanctions on Iran, Friday oil prices shot up 10%, today Europe began an embargo on Iranian oil, Russia is massing troops on Iran's northern border, all for oil. And Obama slaps heavy tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels, not good... What kind of devestation in the Arctic will it take to convince the public that oil is just a bad idea?! No time for you younger people to relax, although your farther future looks bright, you've got to pick your way past TEA Party imbeciles trying to destroy the planet's environment sooner than later. Do the teabaggers sense their opportunities of environmental destruction slipping away?
July 01, 2012 5:06pm
If environmentalists want change they need to quit kowtowing to the Democratic party and repeating the party line mantras. You know every midterm you realize that the Dems have played you for a fool and you talk big about how we need a 3rd party. Then come the election you repeat the same worn lies about how a 3rd party spoils the Dem candidate and is a wasted vote. You do nothing to make the Dems earn your vote, they throw a few lines about protecting the environment, your organizations fall all over themselves to endorse the Dem and that's the last you hear of protecting the environment in the election much less the next 3.75 years, until they "need you" again.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Salazar isn't the only one who believes in the Tooth Fairy, etc. . . .
July 01, 2012 2:35pm
Believe? Believe? Once again science is totally discounted for the "religious" belief that oil companies deserve every ounce of profit no matter what the consequences. It seems there is no rational thought accessed in our governing body, and certainly no empathy or attention to democratic rule by the People and for the People.
July 01, 2012 12:00pm
Why not print the entire delusional statement? "I believe there will not be an oil spill. If there is, I think the response capability is there to arrest the problem very quickly and minimize damage. If I were not confident that would happen, I would not let the permits go forward.”
July 01, 2012 11:09am
Could it be that major polluting industries (oil/coal) have purposely conspired to warm the climate so they can access arctic and antarctic oil and mineral reserves? We are talking $trillions of dollars and for that, these companies have and will kill anything that stands in their way. Oil CEOs/board members are on profit steroids.
How else can we explain that 97% of climate scientists are on the side of man-made global warming but only 3% of the "scientists" are doubters, holding the planet hostage to their destructive ways? How we can force the issue of alternative energy on a few strategically located individuals such as Sen. Inhofe of OK? If environmentalists want change, they have shift resources and human power to replacing key decision makers sitting on the jugular of humanity.
July 01, 2012 10:15am
Wishful thinking.
Salazar also believes in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny.