Drilling critics warn of spill in Arctic Ocean

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Drilling critics warn of spill in Arctic Ocean
By DAN JOLING
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 16, 2010; 4:00 PM

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Inupiat Eskimo whale hunter George Kingik follows news accounts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He cringes when he imagines crude fouling his backyard, Alaska's Chukchi Sea.

"They're not ready for the Arctic," Kingik said from his home in Point Hope, 700 miles northwest of Anchorage. "It's completely different up here."

Shell Oil two years ago spent $2.1 billion for leases in the Chukchi, the arm of the Arctic Ocean that the United States shares with Russia, and the home to one of America's two polar bear populations.

The federal Minerals Management Service estimated the sale area contained 15 billion barrels of conventionally recoverable oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of conventionally recoverable natural gas. Shell is poised to begin exploratory drilling this summer on leases as far as 140 miles off shore.

Alaska Native groups and environmentalists are hoping a judge or the Obama administration will intervene.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051602056.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Point hope is so far out of they from civilization that you have to get on a smaller

plane in BFE to get to it.

There is ZERO infrastructure out there. If anything remotely like what happened in the Gulf were to happen out there, response to the scene would be weeks away.

[MadMaddie]

2. If Shell manages their rigs like BP it's just a matter of time...

They started two years ago...interesting....

[benld74]

3. CRITICS? More SANE than ANYONE who THINKS NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN!!