SEATTLE | BY VICTORIA CAVALIERE
Commodities | Sat May 16, 2015 12:00pm BST
Hundreds of activists, many in boats and kayaks, were gearing up on Saturday to protest plans to store two Royal Dutch Shell drilling rigs in Seattle’s waterfront before the oil giant resumes Arctic oil exploration this summer.
Environmental groups have vowed to disrupt the oil giant’s efforts to use the Port of Seattle as a home base as it outfits the rigs to return to the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, saying drilling in the remote Arctic waters could lead to an ecological catastrophe.
On Friday, about 20 kayakers met the first of two rigs that will dock in Seattle, unfurling a banner reading “Arctic Drilling = Climate Change.” On land, other protesters erected a metal tripod to try to block access to the rigs.
Saturday’s protest is expected to draw much larger crowds, including a flotilla of boats and kayaks around Shell’s terminal at the port. Another demonstration was planned for Monday, according to organizer ShellNo.
“Shell’s drilling rigs are a prime example of the root causes and injustice of the climate crisis,” the group said on its website.
The second rig is expected at the port in the coming days but the exact date has not been announced.
Environmental groups, including Greenpeace, contend weather conditions make it impossible to safely drill in the Arctic, a region that helps regulate the global climate because of its vast layers of sea ice.
Opponents of the rigs docking in Seattle, a city known for its environmental causes, include Mayor Ed Murray and the City Council.
Shell was bringing in the rigs and moving ahead as planned despite the opposition and a ruling earlier this week by the city’s planning department that the port’s agreement with the company was in violation of its city permit.
“The timeline now is just to make sure the rigs are ready to go,” said Curtis Smith, a Shell spokesman.
Earlier this week, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management gave conditional approval to Shell’s resumption of fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic, which was paused after a mishap-filled 2012 season.
The decision was met with approval by some Alaska lawmakers, who believe it will bring money and jobs to the state.
“Approval of Shell’s exploration plan for Alaska’s Chukchi Sea marks another important step toward the United States assuming a leadership role in the Arctic,” Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said in a statement.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)
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.
