BP targets one of the world's last unspoilt wildernesses after deal

[cal04]

Environmentalists are angry at the energy giant's plans to drill for oil in a remote region of the Arctic
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/bp-targets-one-of-the-worlds-last-unspoilt-wildernesses-after-deal-2185821.html

The Arctic is to become the "new environmental battleground", campaigners warned yesterday after BP announced plans to drill in one of the last great unspoilt wildernesses on earth.

Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have vowed to confront BP's American boss, Bob Dudley, over the agreement with the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft to explore the Kara Sea, north of Siberia. The British energy firm was branded the world's "environmental villain number one" by Friends of the Earth (FoE) yesterday in response to its move to exploit potential oil reserves in the remote waters.

Environmentalists are dismayed that BP, which announced the deal on Friday night, has decided to set up rigs in an area of great biodiversity and treacherous weather conditions. The region is one of the few remaining havens left for a number of endangered species, including polar bears, walruses and beluga whales. And while the waters of the Kara Sea are relatively unexplored, they are known to house key fish species such as halibut, capelin and Arctic cod.

(snip)

The oil giant "cannot be trusted" to drill oil in difficult waters, and any oil spill would be "completely catastrophic". He added: "The Arctic should be a no-go for fossil fuel extraction as it's one of the few pristine environments we have left. It's very fragile and we should be looking at ways to protect it, not seemingly trying to find ways of wrecking it."
(Mike Childs, FoE's head of climate change)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Again? Do they have ZERO shame?

It's as though they want to rub our noses in their power.

They Must Be Stopped.

Dammit.

And, recommended.

:grr:

[joshcryer]

2. This isn't reported at a national level, and you really won't find it except on advocacy forums...

...and if you subscribe to the proper google news feed.

It's reported, of course, it's just not allowed to be put into the minds of the masses through higher tier reporting.

[KoKo]

8. True but see Post #7..Congressman Markey feels it's a US Security Threat...

[Odin2005]

3. I'm speechless.

:grr:

[Generic Other]

4. What the hell!

No way to keep up with all the crimes.

[Cerridwen]

5. Kick and Rec and fuming.

:mad:

Thanks, Peggy for the heads-up.

[dwilso40641]

6. K&R n/t

[KoKo]

7. Mass. Dem Congressman Edward Markey Calls for "thorough analysis of the agreement!

http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=43&Itemid=15


Jan 14, 2011: Markey Statement on BP Share Deal with State-owned Russian Oil Giant

Calls for CIFUS Review of Deal If BP America Affected
Contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder, Natural Resources Committee Democratic Ranking Member Ed Markey, 202-494-4486

WASHINGTON (January 14, 2011) – Reacting to reports of a major share-swap between BP and the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) issued the following statement. Rep. Markey, who is the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called for a thorough analysis of the agreement. If the deal is found to affect the operations of BP America, Rep. Markey says the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a Treasury Department entity tasked with reviewing and acting upon the national security implications of foreign investments, should analyze the deal. In 2009, BP was the top petroleum supplier to the United States military.

Congressman Markey's Statement

“Even following the largest oil spill in U.S. history, and potentially billions of dollars in fines still outstanding, the Russian Bear is apparently bullish about BP. This acquisition will almost certainly complicate the politics of levying and collecting damages from BP following their Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“BP once stood for British Petroleum. With this deal, it now stands for Bolshoi Petroleum.

“The details of this deal and its impacts on the operations of BP America need to be thoroughly examined. If this agreement affects the national and economic security of the United States then it should be immediately reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Additionally, the U.S. State Department should closely monitor this transaction.”

[somone]

9. Seems the entire planet belongs to BP

Disgusting

[BeFree]

10. Just watch

The ice-huggers will be blamed for the price of gas. Welcome to the EE dungeon, ice-huggeres !

[azul]

11. Now can we stop buying gas?

This was the top front page story on today's FT. The deputy prime minister of Russia said the government held BP in the highest esteem.

Rosneft takes 5% share in BP. Is this BP moving on to greener fields, or perhaps intimidating the US legal community?

The scull and crossbones is verily the flag of international corporations.

[cal04]

12. Greenpeace slams BP over Russia deal to explore Arctic

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Greenpeace+slams+over+Russia+deal+explore+Arctic/4114783/story.html

Environmental campaigners Greenpeace slammed BP on Saturday after the British energy firm signed a huge Arctic exploration deal with Russia, just nine months after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

(snip)
"The Arctic is the most fragile environment in the world in which to drill for oil and there can be no confirmation yet that BP has learned the lessons for the Gulf of Mexico disaster," Greenpeace spokesman Ben Stewart said.

"Any company that drills for oil in the Arctic forfeits any claim to environmental responsibility.

"An oil spill in the cold waters of the Arctic would be catastrophic and extremely difficult to deal with.

[blondeatlast]

13. If nothing else can be done to BP--stop their expansion until

the Gulf Coast is restored.

Just stop the expansion, period. Stop it, stop it, stop it. Can the world court intervene somehow?

[azul]

15. No. International enviornmental and human rights law is a shambles.

International corporate law works pretty well through the power of its treaties and banks, however.

Take a gander at Philippe Sands' Lawless World for some history and state of affairs, 2005.

[KoKo]

14. Guardian: "American Hostility Grows over BP Deal with Russia...

American hostility grows over BP's deal with Russian state oil company

Politicians voice fears over Alaska pipelines, Gulf payouts and risk of Kremlin influence on major


Britain's leading oil company, BP, is facing hostility and suspicion from the US over an alliance with the Russian state oil firm Rosneft that opens up vast areas of untapped wilderness off the coast of Siberia and beneath the Arctic shelf.

Endorsed by both countries' prime ministers, David Cameron and Vladimir Putin, the tie-up gives Rosneft a 5% stake in BP, while the London-based company will increase its stake in the Russian firm from 1.3% to 10.8%. It will give the Kremlin a slice of ownership of BP's global operations, which stretch from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, north Africa, Azerbaijan and the North Sea.

BP's chief executive, Bob Dudley, hailed the arrangement, signed on Friday night, as a "historic moment for Rosneft, the BP and for the global energy industry generally", and described it as a "new template" for the way international oil exploration can take place. Russia's deputy prime minister, Igor Sechin, who chairs Rosneft, suggested that among BP's attractions were "knowledge and experience" accrued from last year's disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The move, which involves BP issuing 988m new shares to Rosneft worth £4.9bn, has gone down badly in the US, coming just days after a presidential commission published a damning report on the blunders leading up to the Deepwater spill. In Washington, the US state department is facing calls to investigate whether the Russian government's links with BP posed national security issues.

"There are various different levels where this deserves some analysis and some scrutiny," said Michael Burgess, a Republican congressman who sits on the House energy and commerce committee. "BP is one of the biggest suppliers to our military. Are there national security implications to this deal?"

Burgess pointed out that BP runs sensitive trans-Alaskan oil pipelines and that the group's BP America subsidiary is regulated as a US company. Comparing the deal to the blocked purchase by Dubai Ports World of P&O's US ports in 2006, he called for an inquiry by the US government's committee on foreign investment, which is chaired by treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and has a mandate to scrutinise potentially threatening financial incursions into the US.

His remarks followed comments by a Democratic congressman, Ed Markey, who suggested BP now stood for "Bolshoi Petroleum" and claimed that the Rosneft tie-up could complicate the collection of compensation for the fishing industry hit by the Deepwater spill.

[sabrina 1]

18. The U.S. should nationalize its oil. Get these people out of

here, they do not care about any country. Let's see how they survive with only Russia as a client. Tell them they either drop the deal with Russia, or the U.S. will rescind all contracts with them. Surely the country that sent a man to the moon, can drill its own oil and distribute the profits among its own people, rather than enriching and empowering abusive, criminal organizations like BP who appear to be running things here in this country.

[underseasurveyor]

16. I think most of us will be in agreement.

How DARE those FUCKING BASTARDS!!!!

:mad:

[sabrina 1]

17. BP are terrorists.

They are destroying the planet. For decades they have been doing it in third world countries, destroying the environment, hiring thugs to kill people who live in their destructive path who protest what they are doing.

The U.S. let them off the hook, and this is what they do in return. They rule the world, these Oil Giants. I cannot believe how they got away with what they did to this country.

So Russia made a deal with them. Poor polar bears ~ :cry:

[pepperbear]

19. ...

"Far away, they bend the rules so secretly
Close their eyes and let it all out into the sea
Hoping nobody else would see"

[saras]

20. For what purpose?

I'm beginning to think they have goals other than merely collecting oil. Much like Bush gutting the 'roadless rule', once they've fouled it up good, there's that much less reason to continue protecting it.

[Maat]

21. What - it's not enough they destroyed the entire Gulf region ...

and other regions around the world!

They want to destroy the Arctic too!

[KoKo]

22. Kick!

[pinboy3niner]

23. K&R

[metapunditedgy]

24. Face it: the US government is in bed with BP. It's business as usual until BP execs are in jail.

The truth may be buried by the BP whores, but it's still the truth.

[defendandprotect]

31. Both parties are in bed together with corporations -- including oil industry/BP --

[bhikkhu]

25. As long as our lives depend on and revolve around our cars...

then it is inevitable that every square inch of wild area on the planet will be exploited and sacrificed. As long as our jobs and economic health depend on steady economic growth, then it is inevitable that every square inch of the planet will be sooner or later made a desert...sorry if it sounds like I have a chip on my shoulder over this one, but the hypocrisy of our whole culture runs pretty deep here.

[metapunditedgy]

26. No. The government should be doing something about BP (and the other destroyers).

It's their job.

Unprosecuted criminal activity is first and foremost the fault of the criminals and the governments that are sleeping with them.

The six billion human beings on this planet are not the primary cause of this.

[bhikkhu]

28. That's like saying its not the engines that are the problem, its the cars

Governments and corporations consist substantially of nothing but people - you can't really separate them (if you get the analogy).

Basically, governments represent people and consist of a minority of people serving a majority of people; when the majority of people's lives depend on and revolve around motor vehicles, one job of government is to ensure affordable fuel.

Corporations consist of organized markets whereby products are sold to the majority; corporations live and die according to whether they sell products that people want at prices they can afford.

You see the problem here. In the first place, you have a huge population demanding fuel at an affordable price. Both governments and corporations are replaceable; they rise and fall according to how well they satisfy the demands of those they represent and serve. What are the odds that a pristine area where no one lives will remain pristine, if it is found to have an abundance of a vital product that is running short everywhere else?

Demand is the primary cause. And we are much closer to 7 billion than 5 now, and heading for at least nine before long, according to the UN.

[metapunditedgy]

29. We elect a government to regulate corporations. The government promises to do so.

When it fails to do so, it is the first to be blamed, as it is the organization we elected and empowered. If "you can't really separate" government and corporations, then we might as well not have a government.

There are lots of resources we all want and compete for, right down to food, water, and living space. But when a war starts, I'm not blaming the populace in some abstract sense. I'm blaming the war-mongers.

In fact, when it came out that speculators were driving the price of oil a few years ago, and some regulation actually took place (probably accidentally), the price of gasoline plummeted. It's a myth that "supply and demand" sets oil prices.

I understand what you're saying in an abstract sense, but there is a much more immediate cause, and that is government's failure to represent actual human beings.

[bhikkhu]

33. We elect governments with votes, we elect corporations with purchases

They are both composed of people serving other people, and lacking the equally democratic offerings of votes and purchases, they both dissolve and have to find something else to do.

The "myth" that supply and demand sets prices needs more than one poor example to refute (the price of gasoline plummeted as the global economy tanked).

[metapunditedgy]

34. If you really want to draw analogies btw government and corporations, ok.

Government has one primary product: protecting the interests of its voters. When it fails to do so (as has happened in the BP case), the government is a failure. When it takes bribes to do so, the government is a criminal failure.

Corporations tell you that their goal is to screw you. Indeed, empathy or decency are screened out as executives climb the "corporate ladder." Some corporations make wild promises in their advertisements (which should be illegal) just like some politicians have, but I do not expect corporations to tell the truth.

So again, a failure to regulate is the government's fault, not some abstract responsibility shared by all of us. This talking point trial balloon is a dramatic fail.

[bhikkhu]

35. the abstract responsibility is in the OP:

"the last unspoiled wilderness on earth". In the midst of the sixth great extinction event the planet has seen, its hardly out of line to see where we are, accept some shared responsibility, and say that if our behaviors don't change the trajectory of our species won't change. I suppose it borders on the philosophical as to how much government should require change or regulate change, and how much we can blame on corporate structures and so regulate, but the final word is the behavior of individuals must change.

Knowing enough of the beginnings and ends of the whole problem, I don't personally need to be governed or regulated into a more sane condition of existence, so I know it is a choice that can be made by individuals. The arctic is a long ways away from all of us, and the "hell to pay" will come more for our grandchildren than for ourselves, but one can still chose every day to be part of the problem, or not.

[closeupready]

32. Agreed.

nt

[femrap]

27. the Oil boyz

aren't going to be satisfied until the planet is fucking dead.

[defendandprotect]

30. Everything of beauty has to be destroyed -- all of nature and its beauty ... because

it so contrasts with the violence and ugliness and evil of the right wing --

Patriarchy and violence are mirror images of one another!


The people must be left without even any memory of beauty -- !!

[Nathanael]

36. They'll Also Be Drilling off the Coast of Australia for the First Time

http://www.energyboom.com/emerging/offshore-oil-bp-drill-coast-australia-first-time