EPA permit brings Shell a step closer to drilling in Beaufort Sea
NEW YORK (Associated Press) – A permit issued by the Environmental Protection Agency puts Shell Oil Co. one step closer to drilling in the Arctic this year, agency officials said Thursday.
The decision came a day after President Bush urged Congress to lift its long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, arguing that the U.S. needs to increase its energy production.
The EPA permit allows Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of Dutch-owned Royal Dutch Shell PLC, to release up to 245 tons of nitrogen oxides at each of its drilling sites in the Beaufort Sea.
That’s roughly equivalent to the amount produced by 1,500 school buses each year, EPA officials said.
Shell’s exploratory drilling project will meet all “health-based ambient air quality standards,” said Rick Albright, director of EPA’s Air, Waste and Toxics office in Seattle.
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said the permit is one of more than a dozen needed to drill in the Beaufort.
“We’re pleased the EPA issued the permit for the 2008 drilling program,” Smith said. “We remain committed to operating in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.”
Although the permit puts a cap on nitrogen oxides, it does nothing to limit the output of carbon dioxide, a gas that has caused temperatures to rise worldwide. The warming has triggered a dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice.
Carbon dioxide is not regulated under the EPA’s ambient air quality standards, said Nancy Helm, air permits program manager in EPA Region 10, which includes Alaska.
Shell’s current exploration plan is still blocked by an injunction from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, pending a final ruling on whether the company can drill at all.
“We’re hopeful that the 9th Circuit will overturn the exploration plan and render this permit meaningless,” said Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The air-quality permit can be challenged through the EPA appeals process, as well as in court.
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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.
