By Dan Joling | AP March 31 at 7:30 PM
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Department of Interior said Tuesday that it has affirmed corrections to an environmental analysis of a 2008 Arctic Ocean petroleum lease sale that brought in $2.7 billion for the federal government.
The expected decision regarding the lease in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast opens the door for the department to review a 2015 Chukchi exploration plan by Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
The original environmental review for Lease Sale 193 was published in 2007, and the sale happened in February 2008. Shell was the most active bidder and spent $2.1 billion on Chukchi leases.
Conservation groups strongly oppose Arctic offshore drilling, claiming petroleum companies have not demonstrated they can clean up spills in the ice-choked waters far from infrastructure that’s routinely available at other drilling sites.
Conservation and Alaska Native groups sued to stop the sale. The groups said the former Minerals Management Service had based its environmental review on projected extraction of only 1 billion barrels of oil. The supplemental review assumes an extraction of 4.3 billion barrels over the life of the leases and greater potential impacts.
Federal courts have twice ordered the environmental analysis to be revised.
Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe, the lead attorney in the lawsuit, said Tuesday the environmental analysis remains flawed. The Interior Department, he said, published a final environmental statement less than two months after publishing a draft.
“Interior was doing that quite explicitly to meet Shell’s timetable,” he said. “We take issue with that. They shouldn’t have been rushing their reconsideration of the leases to meet the drilling hopes of the lessees. They should have been doing the thorough analysis and reconsideration that the court required.”
The revised review, he said, lays out the chance of a major spill at 75 percent for extraction or development of 4.3 billion barrels of oil. The agency also didn’t analyze environmental consequences of burning that much oil, Grafe said, which is troubling in light of scientific consensus that the world will have to leave most fossil fuel in the ground to meet climate goals.
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management spokesman John Callahan said by email the agency took care to not underestimate the chance of a spill. The 75 percent figure assumes an extraction scenario covering 77 years with oil conveyed to market by pipeline — and with a spill of at least 1,000 barrels possibly occurring during development and production, not exploration.
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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.
