Environment | Shell clears major US government hurdle for Arctic drilling 

With the Olympic Mountains in the background, a small boat crosses in front of an oil drilling rig as it arrives in Port Angeles, Wash.

Royal Dutch Shell’s­ Arctic drilling program has cleared a major bureaucratic hurdle to begin drilling for oil and gas off Alaska’s northwestern coast this summer.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Monday (yesterday in Macau) approved the multi-year exploration plan in the Chukchi Sea for Shell after reviewing thousands of comments from the public, Alaska Native organizations and state and federal agencies.
The approval came just days before a planned protest of the drilling program in Seattle.
Shell must still obtain other permits from state and federal agencies, including one to drill from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Both BOEM and BSEE are agencies of the U.S. Department of Interior. The company must also obtain government opinions that find Shell can comply with terms and conditions of the Endangered Species Act.
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said the approval “is an important milestone and signals the confidence regulators have in our plan. However, before operations can begin this summer, it’s imperative that the remainder of our permits be practical, and delivered in a timely manner.
“In the meantime, we will continue to test and prepare our contractors, assets and contingency plans against the high bar stakeholders and regulators expect of an Arctic operator,” Smith said in an email to The Associated Press.
The Port of Seattle would need to get another permit to base the Arctic drilling fleet in Seattle for about six months of the year.
Meanwhile, Smith said that a giant floating oil rig currently anchored off Port Angeles, Washington state, will be towed to Seattle this week despite the Seattle mayor’s assertion that the Port of Seattle can’t host the rig until it gets a new land-use permit.
Activists plan to protest. A so-called “festival of resistance” starts Saturday and will include protesters on land and in kayaks, trying to block the ship’s movements.
Environmental groups on Monday blasted the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for providing the permit to Shell.
“This decision places big oil before people, putting the Arctic’s iconic wildlife and the health of our planet on the line,” Erik Grafe, an attorney for Earthjustice, said in a statement. “The agency should not be approving such threatening plans based on a rushed and incomplete environmental and safety review. Ultimately, Arctic Ocean drilling is far too risky and undermines the administration’s efforts to address climate change and transition to a clean energy future.” Marc Thiessen, Anchorage, AP