WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Polar bears have gotten a reprieve with Royal Dutch Shell's announcement it will not pursue plans to drill in Alaskan waters this summer, conservationists say.
Shell's plans to drill for oil off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have been opposed by conservationists and native communities along the Alaska coast, and have been put on hold twice before, in 2007 and 2010, a Center for Biological Diversity release said Thursday.
Drilling in 2007 was stopped by a federal court due to poor environmental review, and plans to drill in 2010 were suspended by the U.S. Department of the Interior following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Shell Alaska Vice President Peter Slaiby said Thursday the decision not to start the exploratory drilling this year was taken because of "continuous regulatory delays," the Los Angeles Times reported.
"The polar bear and other wildlife of Alaska's Arctic, as well as the local communities that depend upon a healthy ocean, were granted a well-deserved reprieve today," Brendan Cummings, CBD senior counsel, said. "Now, the Department of the Interior needs to turn that short-term reprieve into permanent protection of America's Arctic."
Environmental groups say oil development in the Arctic is a dangerous proposition because no technologies exist to clean up oil spills in icy waters.
Slaiby said a "significant portion" of the more than $3 billion Shell had invested in the project had been dedicated to creating a spill response program.
