After a year of set-backs and accidents by Royal Dutch Shell, the Arctic Ocean got a welcome break when the company announced it will not drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean in 2013.
“Clearly, sea ice is a problem even now, during summer,” said Lois Epstein, an Alaska-licensed engineer and The Wilderness Society’s Arctic Program Director. “Chukchi Sea oil likely will be among the most expensive oil in the world to produce and transport to market
Sadly, the answer is always the same. Because of Alaska’s remoteness and lack of infrastructure, and Shell’s inadequate technology, the company would recover very little – if any – spilled oil.
The Arctic Ocean may be remote and frigid, but it is home to abundant life and a delicate marine ecosystem. Despite the risks posed by offshore oil drilling, the oil industry is bent on gaining access to these fragile waters.
Alaska is America’s last great, wild frontier. In Alaska you can still see caribou migrating through vast valleys, salmon streams running through ancient forests and polar bears roaming icy shores of the Arctic Ocean.
In Alaska you’ll find some of the largest and most sensitive tracts of wild land left on Earth. Yet these lands may not stay that way if the oil and gas and timber industries have their way.
