Environmental groups critical of call for more Arctic oil and gas. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker wants federal considerations for new leases. Photo courtesy of the office of the Alaskan governor.
JUNEAU, Alaska, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. advocacy groups, some of which staged high-profile protests against Shell, said Arctic oil and gas should be left out of the nation's energy agenda.
U.S. officials attending an event sponsored by the Arctic Energy Center expressed tepid support for the responsible development of oil and gas reserves in Arctic waters. The event followed an early October request to the Interior Department from Alaska Gov. Bill Walker to include Arctic waters off the state coast in a lease program proposed for 2017.
Alaska's government is calling for at least one lease sale each in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and Cook Inlet in the next five-year lease program.
In a statement to UPI, 350 Seattle organizer Emily Johnston said considering oil and gas work in the Arctic landscape was out of step with the move toward a low-carbon economy.
"The idea of new infrastructure to drill new wells in one of the world's most pristine and fragile environments is simply insane," she said.
Johnston's group last year played a role in protests against Royal Dutch Shell as it deployed drillships to the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. Six Greenpeace activists scaled the Shell drillship Polar Pioneer as it moved toward Seattle waters in early 2015.
Shell already devoted about $5 billion and more than eight years of work to its Arctic oil exploration campaign. The drillship Kulluk struck ground off the Alaskan coast in 2012, and the U.S. Coast Guard blamed harsh winter conditions and the company's efforts to escape Alaskan tax laws for the incident.
Michael Levine, a senior counsel of advocacy group Oceana, told UPI there's no compelling reason to include Arctic oil and gas in federal plans. Given the economic reality of the constraints presented by oil at $50 per barrel, he said drilling campaigns like these are best left idled.
"If there is oil under the Arctic Ocean, it has been there for millions of years and will be there for millions more," he said. "Instead of rushing to sell leases now, we should focus on infrastructure, science, and planning for the future."
After vetoing a measure in June to draw on state savings, Alaska's governor said the state is running a $4 billion deficit. By July, the state's credit rating had been downgraded by Moody's. Including offshore Alaska in the federal lease plans is "incredibly important" for the state's financial health, Walker said.
Amy Pope, the vice chairperson of the White House Arctic Executive Steering Committee, said at the Arctic council this week that U.S. national energy security strategy recognizes there may be sizeable oil and gas reserves in the region that could serve to meet domestic energy needs in the future.
"Responsibly developing Arctic oil and gas resources aligns with United States' 'all-of-the-above' approach to developing domestic energy resources, whether it's renewables, expanding oil and gas production, increasing efficiency and conservation efforts to reduce our reliance on imported oil and strengthening our nation's energy security," she said.
