Coast Guard finds violations on Shell Arctic drilling rig

[Blue_In_AK]

Source: Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON — The Coast Guard has found serious safety and environmental violations on a Shell drilling rig used in the Arctic waters off Alaska, another blow to the company’s controversial bid to harvest oil in the petroleum-rich but sensitive region.

The Coast Guard said Friday that it has turned over the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice, which had no comment.

The Coast Guard found 16 violations on the Noble Discoverer, one of Shell’s two drilling rigs for Alaska’s Arctic waters. The company’s other rig, the Kulluk, has its own troubles. The Kulluk broke free from towlines during a New Year’s Eve storm and was grounded for several days off Kodiak Island.

Details of the Noble Discoverer’s violations were obtained by Democratic staff of the House Natural Resources Committee, which had asked the Coast Guard for an accounting of inspections that took place on the rig at the end of November.

“The reports that Shell may have been drilling this summer using a drill ship with serious deficiencies in its safety and pollution control equipment raise additional and continued questions about whether Shell is able to drill safely offshore in the Arctic,” Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the committee, wrote Friday to Shell’s president.

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Read more: http://www.adn.com/2013/02/22/2798607/coast-guard-finds-violations-on.html

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Surprise, surprise...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The surprise would have been NOT finding any!

And these bastards think they can get away with this crap too.

Damn.

[Fuddnik]

2. Give them $2 billion in subsidies, and call them in the morning.

They'll be fine.

[Dustlawyer]

3. I have been fighting BP since they blew up their Texas City, Tx plant, killing 15 and injuring 100's

They DO NOT CARE! Any fines will be negotiated down to almost nothing for these monster corporations. They are so cheap they wait until their equipment is so bad they can't patch or band aid it anymore and it fails. They own our politicians, no real fear there. At the hearing to determine whether the Judge would approve the illegal back room deal b/w BP and the U.S. Attorneys office (they failed to include input from ANY victims as required by Federal law), the Judge approved the settlement after hearing from some victims and their attorneys. It was $50,000,000. Looks and sounds like a lot, and is to almost everyone, including reporters. We held a press conference with our client, Eva Rowe, who lost both parents in the explosion. A man from Access for Public Justice was speaking about what a joke the fine was. A reporter yelled out, "How can you complain of a FIFTY MILLION DOLLAR fine?" The man replied, "Last night from the end of the Super Bowl until right now at 10 a.m. That one plant has already made that money back!

[Auntie Bush]

4. Good for the future Mass. Senator Ed Markey.

He'll keep pressure on the asses of those criminal, negligent Shell drillers.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. I wish he'd find a way to stop all the drilling in Arctic waters.

It just isn't safe.

[Gorp]

6. There's a shock.