Court Of Appeals Blocks Shell Plan To Drill In Beaufort Sea - Failed To Address Environmental Impact

[hatrack]

ANCHORAGE - The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday blocked a major oil-drilling program in the Beaufort Sea, ruling that federal officials failed to address environmental impacts when they granted permission to Shell Oil to drill wells over a three-year period.

The US Minerals Management Service did not properly consider the risks of oil spills, disturbance to migrating whales, disruptions to the traditional hunting lifestyle of Inupiat Eskimos and other potential harms from Shell's program to drill at a prospect known as Sivulliq, the court ruled.

Before authorizing drilling, the agency must start anew with its review and perhaps launch a full-scale environmental impact statement rather than a more abbreviated environmental assessment, the court ruled. "There remain substantial questions as to whether Shell's plan may cause significant harm to the people and wildlife of the Beaufort Sea region," the ruling said.

The long-awaited decision followed a temporary order issued last year that halted Shell's drilling at Sivulliq, about 16 miles off the coast of northern Alaska. The prospect, once called Hammerhead when it was drilled decades earlier, is known to hold oil, but it was abandoned in the past for economic reasons.

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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/51210/story.htm