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Energy in America: EPA Rules Force Shell to Abandon Oil Drilling Plans

[image]http://video.foxnews.com/thumbnails/042511/640/360/springer_energy_FNC_042511_12-44.jpg[/image]





Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight.

Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar air permits for a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico would take about 45 days. He’s especially frustrated over the appeal board’s suggestion that the Arctic drill would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. “We think the issues were really not major,” Slaiby said, “and clearly not impactful for the communities we work in.”

The closest village to where Shell proposed to drill is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United States. According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the residents are Alaska natives. The village, which is 1 square mile, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site. The EPA’s appeals board ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project. Environmental groups were thrilled by the ruling.

“What the modeling showed was in communities like Kaktovik, Shell’s drilling would increase air pollution levels close to air quality standards,” said Eric Grafe, Earthjustice’s lead attorney on the case. Earthjustice was joined by Center for Biological Diversity and the Alaska Wilderness League in challenging the air permits.

At stake is an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/25/energy-america-oil-drilling-denial/#ixzz1KcnkIEKP

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ORIGINAL: mnottertail

http://menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=9a4b4cbd-a9e8-4ca3-87d2-93612beda6be

build refineries, yes, as well. this epa thing is hysterical rightism. 

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ORIGINAL: Sanity
You want to talk hysterical, just post more press releases from Democrats as if theyre news articles [:D]

The minute you see the word "Big Oil" you know its a partisan hit piece, and nothing to be taken seriously

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ORIGINAL: Louve00

Wow, Ron.  Thanks for posting that article.  In this particular topic I'm as left as left could be (according to some on the right, I suppose).  I am dead set against drilling in deep water ANYWHERE that can effect American people because those decadently rich oil companies won't spend the R&D to develop a better way.  If its deep water drilling vs $6 a gallon, I'd pay $6 a gallon in a heartbeat.  There are other ways to supplement our energy, but everyone has a negative attitude about how to get there, which means we enslave ourselves to the need for oil.  We enslave ourselves.  But I'll be damned if I cave in to the fear-mongering, depressing, negative right.  The real politicians will have to change that if they so deem it fit.  The ones who only bitch and moan on here....well, they're just people who bitch and moan here.

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ORIGINAL: flcouple2009

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity
You want to talk hysterical, just post more press releases from Democrats as if theyre news articles [:D]

The minute you see the word "Big Oil" you know its a partisan hit piece, and nothing to be taken seriously

Legislation introduced in the Senate is a hit piece.  You've gone even further over the edge than you used to be the last few days.

I am sure you have a few facts to bring to the table to dispute what is in the legislation?

Having grown up right in the middle of the oil patch, this crap has been going on for ages.

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ORIGINAL: hardcybermaster

the real problem is population. there are 3 times as many people living on the planet now than there was 50 years ago and the number is rising,and rising.....and rising.
The western/developed world demands a huge percentage of the world's resources and there will not be enough to go round soon.It really doesn't matter how much oil you get or from where as there won't be enough of everything we view as important to go round before long and then things will really start to get interesting

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ORIGINAL: Sanity


There are vast oil, coal and natural gas reserves throughout North America, and we can burn them cleaner and safer than practically anyone, especially China. The only way we can suffer any kind of hardship is if the radical environmentalists hold sway over all the bureaucracies which are charged with running our lives, and which are fast becoming political footballs as opposed to what we were told they would be

quote:

ORIGINAL: hardcybermaster

the real problem is population. there are 3 times as many people living on the planet now than there was 50 years ago and the number is rising,and rising.....and rising.
The western/developed world demands a huge percentage of the world's resources and there will not be enough to go round soon.It really doesn't matter how much oil you get or from where as there won't be enough of everything we view as important to go round before long and then things will really start to get interesting