Shell ship grounding fuels Arctic drilling debate

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — There's no indication of a fuel leak from a petroleum drilling ship that ran aground on a remote Alaska island, the Coast Guard says of a maritime accident that has refueled debate over oil exploration in the U.S. Arctic Ocean.

The Royal Dutch Shell PLC ship was being towed to a Pacific Northwest shipyard for maintenance when it went aground during a vicious storm New Year's Eve.

"There are still no signs of any sheen or environmental impact and the Kulluk appears to be stable," Coast Guard Capt. Paul Mehler said Wednesday night, after flying over the rig with a Shell representative and an Alaska Environmental Conservation Department official.

He said he saw four life boats on the shoreline but there was no indication that other debris had been ripped from the ship.

The overflight in rain and 35 mph winds showed a few birds but no marine mammals near the rig, said Steve Russell of the Environmental Conservation Department.

Calmer weather conditions on Wednesday allowed a team of five salvage experts to be lowered by helicopter to the Royal Dutch Shell PLC ship to conduct a three-hour structural assessment.

After the grounding, critics quickly asserted that it has foreshadowed what will happen north of the Bering Strait if drilling is allowed.

Environmentalists for years have said conditions are too harsh and the stakes too high to allow industrial development in the Arctic, where drilling sites are 1,000 miles or more from the closest Coast Guard base.

Environmentalists note the Beaufort and Chukchi seas are some of the wildest and most remote ecosystems on the planet. They also are among the most fragile, supporting polar bears, the ice seals they feed on, walrus, endangered whales and other marine mammals that Alaska Natives depend on for their subsistence culture.

"The Arctic is just far different than the Gulf of Alaska or even other places on earth," said Marilyn Heiman, U.S. Arctic director for the Pew Environment Group.

The state of Alaska has been an enthusiastic supporter of Arctic offshore drilling. More than 90 percent of its general fund revenue comes from oil earnings. However, the trans-Alaska pipeline has been running at less than one-third capacity as reserves diminish in North Slope fields. State officials see Arctic offshore drilling as a way to replenish the trans-Alaska pipeline while keeping the state economy vital.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20130102/US.Shell.Arctic.Drill.Ship/

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All ecosystems are fragile. There's nothing especially fragile about Arctic ecosystems. That's just a word the environazis like to bandy about in order to emotionally manipulate gullible libtards.

As for this accident, guess what... accidents happen!!! People move on. I suggest you move on too.

Libtards make me sick.

[james&olya 1,121]

[quote name=' timestamp='1357232803' post='5900604]

All ecosystems are fragile. There's nothing especially fragile about Arctic ecosystems. That's just a word the environazis like to bandy about in order to emotionally manipulate gullible libtards.

As for this accident, guess what... accidents happen!!! People move on. I suggest you move on too.

Libtards make me sick.

Libtards SHOULD make you sick. They are an aberration. The average liberal is more intelligent and highly educated than the average conservative, especially conservatives of the so-called 'tea-party' type.

And further, if you had a bit more knowledge of our environment you would not make such a foolish statement as you do about the relative fragility of arctic ecosystems. When an ecosystem exists at conditions very close to those at which life becomes impossible they are much more vulnerable to circumstances, such as large toxic releases, that could trigger extinctions of species. Civilization in the future will likely be appalled at the kind of attitudes indicated in your post!

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When an ecosystem exists at conditions very close to those at which life becomes impossible they are much more vulnerable to circumstances, such as large toxic releases, that could trigger extinctions of species.

What a bunch of malarkey.

[Ban Hammer 13,570]

Libtards SHOULD make you sick. They are an aberration. The average liberal is more intelligent and highly educated than the average conservative, especially conservatives of the so-called 'tea-party' type.

citation please.

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citation please.

What are you, the freakin' Dean of VJ now?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

The US only has one working ice breaker atm and it's as old as the hills. Obama has budgeted two new ice breakers to be built this year...thanks in part to the Nome Alaska fuel fiasco last winter. Once those ice breakers are completed it will be an entire new ball game with the offshore drilling.