Story Updated: Sep 14, 2007 at 12:44 AM AKDT
ALASKA/ NATIONAL – The 9th Circuit Court has backed up a ruling preventing Shell Oil from drilling in the Beaufort Sea. The original ruling came down in August and was appealed.
The Court has stopped activity under the three year exploration plan until it can resolve the challenges to the plan and has put the case on a fast track.
According to a press release regarding the issue, a coalition of Native Alaskans and conservation groups had sued to halt the drilling on concerns that such large-scale industrial activities would threaten endangered Bowhead whales, polar bears and other marine animals in coastal waters just off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The groups challenged the permit issued by the federal Mineral Management Service on grounds that the agency failed to conduct proper assessment of environmental impacts.
The August 14th court order that Shell had asked the Court to reconsider concludes that groups challenging the exploration plan approval “have shown a probability of success on the merits” and “the balance of hardships tips sharply in their favor.”
“The costs of drilling in the Beaufort Sea will lay with the local communities of the North Slope. The negative effects to our subsistence way of life will be seen on a daily basis – negative impacts to our quality of life and human and ecological health; therefore, today’s decision is heartening” commented Rosemary Ahtuangaruk, an Inupiat resident of Nuiqsut, a community near the proposed Shell lease area, and member of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (Redoil).
“The agency’s own scientists have warned that this type of activity could threaten serious impacts to bowhead whale mothers with calves,” said Betsy Beardsley, Alaska Wilderness League.
Shell had been granted permission by the MMS to drill as many as four wells this year, some just offshore from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area kept off-limits to major mineral exploration despite continued efforts of the Bush administration to open it up to such activities.
The decision on Friday was based on the possible risks to wildlife. On Thursday Shell said if the ruling wasn’t reversed it would have to lay off contract workers and disband its offshore drilling fleet.
“The court’s ‘time out’ should send a message to the federal government that they can’t continue to rubber stamp risky drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean,” said Whit Sheard, Alaska Program Director for Pacific Environment. “This is yet another reason to revisit MMS’ reckless decision to sell off over 70 million acres of the Arctic Ocean to oil companies.”
Groups challenging the permit are the Alaska Wilderness League, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pacific Environment, Center for Biological Diversity, and Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (Redoil) and are represented by Earthjustice. The North Slope Borough and Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission have also challenged the drilling plan.
Story Created: Sep 14, 2007 at 12:34 AM AKDT
http://www.aksuperstation.com/news/local/9770762.html
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
