EXCERPTS:

In a few short months, Royal Dutch Shell is set to begin exploratory drilling in the Arctic—another rich and fragile region.
 

…If a spill occurs in the harsh, unpredictable Arctic environment, it could spell disaster for ecosystems and wildlife, as well as the Native peoples of the region, whose way of life depends upon healthy ocean ecosystems.
 

Excerpts:

Fishing here is far from what it was. Suicides and bankruptcies and bitterness surged. Many people left even as a few became “spillionaires,” getting paid to clean up.
 

…National news crews are chartering planes to nearby islands to see how oil still coats rocks just below the surface all these years later.
 

Excerpts:

For the first time in two decades, federal wildlife managers will take a look at how they administer the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including the possibility of asking Congress to make 1.5 million acres of the long-disputed coastal plain off limits to oil and gas development by designating it as wilderness.

Excerpts:

A new report by The Wilderness Society seeks to debunk energy industry claims that the Obama administration’s land policies have resulted in fewer rigs across the West.

The real culprit is a decline in natural gas prices, the report says, outlining a decline that began months before President Barack Obama took office.

Excerprs:

He is virtually rewiring the DNA of a department once focused almost exclusively on fossil fuels by pushing it to develop renewable energy on millions of acres of public lands. He has instituted new ethics regulations; raised the profile of American Indian issues; and reined in the galloping oil and gas leasing that was the hallmark of the previous administration.