Obama's Excuses For Arctic Drilling Hypocrisy - Natasha Geiling Part 2

[matthewf]

[Nitram]

1. I'm an environmentalist by profession and inclination, but this story is not so simple.

Yes drilling in the Arctic is insane. However, the Bush administration sold a drilling lease to Shell for $2 billion. And then Shell spent $4 billion preparing to drill. If Obama denies them a permit to drill, Shell would rightly expect to have that money refunded by the U.S. taxpayer. Russia and Canada will be drilling anyway. Obama has imposed the strictest standards of any country on drilling in the Arctic. It's a bad situation, but I'm afraid it will take a spill to get an international ban on drilling up there.