by Tina Grazier
This story is an illustration of the stranglehold that BIG GREEN has on industry. It involves a legal tactic that is used again and again (and not just to oil companies). Its time to stand in protest! Just say noits costing too much and yielding very little benefitif any.
Shell Oil spent $44 million dollars in 2005 to purchase leases in Alaskas Beaufort Sea and was scheduled to begin drilling when the plan was delayed due to legal battles with environmentalists. Shell will continue performing the related work of collecting seismic data and performing other pre-drilling studies but this delay is a terrible waste:
Shell delays Alaska drilling plan due legal dispute, – Reuters
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is considering a lawsuit filed by environmentalists, whalers and the North Slope Borough to stop the drilling project due to concerns about its impact on whales and other marine mammals. ** Drilling on four wells had been delayed last year after the court ordered a temporary halt to Shell’s drilling program. ** Juneau-based attorney Eric Jorgensen of the environmental legal group Earthjustice said the decision to delay this year’s planned drilling was logical. ** “It makes no sense to march ahead with drilling that threatens bowhead whales and polar bears and the way of life of the people living in the region until the government meets its obligations to consider the full impacts,” Jorgensen said.
How much of the BIG investment that oil companies must make to bring oil to the market is wasted and squandered when an investment of this size is placed on hold due to continuing legal battles? Is it any wonder they take every chance to increase their profit margin?
After decades of considering the environment in a variety of locations we should have a very good idea about how this industry effects the environment. We would, that is, if this issue was really important and critical. But constant legal pressure against the oil companies is not about preserving the environmentit is an harassment tactic used by hysterical extremist against industry. The American people pay the price for this egregious tactic not only at the pumps but in higher prices for all products and services.
Isnt it time environmentalist, and the legal predators they enlist, had to show demonstrable justification for their audacious and continuous claims and harassment?