By Edvard Pettersson – Feb 21, 2012 8:34 PM GMT
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA)s air pollution permits for offshore oil drilling in Alaska were challenged by environmental groups who said the permits violate the U.S. Clean Air Act.
The Alaska Wilderness League and eight other organizations filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Feb. 17, asking it to review two permits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted Shell to operate its Discoverer drillship in the Sea of Beaufort and the Sea of Chukchi.
As early as this summer, the Discoverer drillship and other vessels in Shells fleet could be in the Chukchi Sea or Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean where they will pump tens of thousands of tons of pollution into pristine Arctic skies, the groups said in a statement today.
The organizations allege that the EPA approved the permits without ensuring that all air quality standards were met, including not requiring that Shell install all the pollution controls that it should have, according to the statement.
The EPA permits were issued Feb. 10 to U.S. subsidiaries of The Hague-based Shell, according the petition. The company on Feb. 17 received U.S. approval for its oil-spill response plan in the Chukchi Sea, bringing it closer to winding up a five-year quest to drill off the north coast of Alaska.
Drilling Permits
Shell must obtain drilling permits from the Interior Departments Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to start work as early as July. The company also needs U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service permission for incidental disruption of polar bears, walrus, whales and seals.
Shell, which has spent about $4 billion on leases, seismic studies and research of Arctic mammals since acquiring access to the Beaufort Sea in 2005, is seeking to drill as many as five wells this year in a region with an estimated 26.6 billion barrels of oil. The exploration plans for both Chukchi and Beaufort seas were approved last year.
Representatives of Shell in Houston and of the EPA in Washington didnt immediately return calls for comment.
The case is Redoil v. EPA, 12-70518, U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit (San Francisco.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at [email protected].
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.
