Another High Five to the Obama Administration on Environmental Protection
It wasn’t but a couple of years ago that I was in a funk about the Obama Administration and the meager progress it had made on environmental issues. I’m so happy to be eating my words, based on what’s happened recently, e.g., the Department of Interior’s cancelling all offshore drilling leases in our Arctic Ocean for the next two years.
From the Sierra Club:
Additionally, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management denied Shell and Statoil’s requests for their Arctic leases to be extended. The “Shell No” movement has shown that people power can and will continue to overcome Big Oil. Let’s celebrate this victory and make sure our oceans continue to be protected from an industry with an unforgivable track record.
That’s the main point I would make as well. It’s another reminder that, despite all indication to the contrary, your voice matters; we must never forget that.
You can thank the Iran nuclear arms deal.
The price of oil will continue to stay very low for at least another year, so Shell abandoned its exploration and no-one else wanted to bid (they’ll all be contracting their production), and aren’t interested in expensive development).
So there was no need to take the political heat when no-one was going to bite anyway.
*shrug*
But the arctic will be exploited.
The danger is VERY real. A burst clathrate could easily result in greater emissions than all of society for 10-20 years… An ice floe could sever the recovery pipelines and create a massive spill…
The prospect is extremely dangerous, but it will happen.
It can either be regulated by us or regulated by Russia.
I trust us far more, especially under the Obama administration and the coming Clinton administration.