An open letter to President Barack Obama:
Dear Mr. President,
As a woman who worked very hard to make sure your last opponents were not elected -- walking door to door in the snow on your behalf, registering more than a thousand Alaskans to vote, exposing Palin in the national media, etc. -- I feel obligated to write you about a few of my concerns.
Your secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, recently told reporters asking about Shell's recent drilling permits and Alaska's Arctic, "I believe there's not going to be an oil spill."
Sir, he just wrote the headline for the first oil spill under arctic ice.
"I believe" is not good policy. I believe that unicorn fur is the most absorbent clean-up product.
The Coast Guard, on the other hand, has held to its reality-based position that it doesn't have the assets necessary to cover a spill in the Arctic. The Coasties will have to pull resources from drug enforcement and fishing fleet security to boost safety in our most northern ocean. The Kodiak Coast Guard base is closer to Seattle than it is to the Chukchi and Beaufort seas -- 700 miles closer. Last winter we had to rely on a Russian icebreaker to deliver fuel to ice-bound Nome.
Trusting and believing is great in church, but when it comes to oil exploration and development, we have to do better.
Lloyd's of London recently insured the new Freedom Tower in New York City, but said the Arctic is too great a risk. Lloyd's said what Salazar should have said: "The environmental consequences of disasters in the Arctic have the potential to be worse than in other regions. The resilience of the Arctic's ecosystems in terms of withstanding risk events is weak, and political sensitivity to a disaster is high. As a result, companies operating in the Arctic face significant reputational risk."
No, I'm not making this up. Lloyd's is betting that a skyscraper known as the Freedom Tower, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, erected at One World Trade Center, on the same land where terrorists attacked us on 9/11, will not be hit again.
But the Arctic is too risky to insure.
Royal Dutch Shell has been prosecuted and fined more than any other oil producer in Britain's North Sea. And these weren't fines for not having enough cupcakes at the company picnic. The company repeatedly failed to maintain pipelines and other essential equipment. Its executives failed to report a dangerous incident and weren't truthful with the government about the extent of a 218-ton oil spill. They also failed to protect workers from hazardous chemicals.
Where else might we apply the "I don't believe" analysis? How about: I don't believe I'll be in a car wreck so I won't wear my seat belt and I'll turn off the air bags. Really? No way. I'd be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt. Why? Because "I don't believe" doesn't prevent accidents. It's why we want every man, woman and child in this country to have access to affordable health care, because "I don't believe I'll get sick" doesn't mean diddly.
Mr. President, you said, "Oil rigs today generally don't cause spills" 18 days before BP's deepwater disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. You were right; they "generally" don't. Oil tankers generally don't run aground on charted rocks. But the Exxon Valdez did and Alaskans waited 20 years for the Supreme Court to finally award 10 cents on the dollar. When I walked across a beach in Prince William Sound two years ago, my boot prints filled with a sheen of oil.
Shell has claimed they can clean up to 90% of an oil spill. Since when? They certainly never have before, and no one else has either. Only 6% of the BP spill was contained, and 11% of the Exxon Valdez.
In 1989, I had a Macintosh SE computer with a 20MB hard drive. Today, you can buy a MacBook Pro with a 768 gigabyte hard drive. Between the two largest spills in America, Apple's technological growth was phenomenal. Yet there was no change to oil spill response technology; same wimpy booms and same dispersants that are more toxic than crude oil.
Generally, accidents don't happen, but when they do, it doesn't matter whether you believed it could happen or not. More than 200 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico. Two years later, the Gulf is still reeling, both ecologically and economically. There won't be a full recovery in either of our lifetimes.
The 111th Congress introduced 101 oil spill-related bills and exactly ZERO of those bills were enacted into law. The time to act is before a spill, not after. A cup of prevention is worth 200 million gallons of cure.
Mr. President, your administration missed an opportunity. Any conservationist worth his salt would rather see ANWR opened than the Beaufort and Chukchi seas drilled. So open ANWR, set a time limit -- say 10 years -- and step up the oversight. The trade? Shut down arctic drilling. You can't control a spill in water or under ice. No one can. I know Shell has a rig on the way. You still have time to cut them off at the pass. "I believe" you can still do the right thing.
Yours truly,
Shannyn
Follow Shannyn Moore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shannynmoore
That's our choice.
The US is prepping for the melting of arctic ice just as Russia is. 23% of the population may be complete climate brainwashed pups but our generals and national security experts are looking at a continent sized resource area becoming exploitable in the next century. They are looking at a russia which has already deployed nuclear ice breakers to facilitate actions in the arctic etc... Claims in open water are what was wanted by the US IMHO. Your point on the distance away from the coast guard is exactly the reason we'ld want a US asset there from a making a claim to US rights to be here perspective.
Northern side of alaska perfect lets grant leases and reasons for the warships to sail and a new coast guard base to come.
And, sadly, it's the same conclusion on gets if one has been awake and paying attention the whole time.
We need a leader who is literate in the ecology of the Earth, that states clearly, mankind is alive, only because of wild and natural ecosystems and the plant and animal biodiversity that creates the one, living organism, an ecosystem. Even if an oil spill never occurs, this ecosystem will be devastated and dangerous in its implications to not only biodiversity, but once the soil is trampled, the ecosystem will never be the same. Soil is at the base of all ecosystems, and soil sequesters much of Earth's climate warming, heat trapping gases. The soil trampled and churned, there goes those gases, out there, again.
This land is also the habitat/homes of countless species of biodiversity. The more biodiversity, the more living and life giving of the Earth. Man's existence is as interconnected to ecosystems and biodiversity as the stars to the firmament. The destruction to ecosystems is the death to Earth and all the reasons human beings are alive. The first war chant of the environment movement, "Ecology Now!"
Meanwhile they told Greenpeace that if they had any emergency issues with their two tiny submarines, they would be unable to do anything to help. Tough luck. The sub is being used to document the ocean floor biota before they drill since no one really knows what the base line biota is in case of a spill.
So if Shell has major emergency the Coast Guard could (and has) called in the US navy to assist. Would they call the Navy if they could not handle a sub emergency/rescue or would the USCG. "standby to standby" and not render assistance.
"Yes if Greenpeace (or anyone) loses a sub we will bring our fullest resources to assist and help those in need along the coast of Alaska like we always have regardless of politics or nationality" The Coast Guard did not say this, but should have.
That's scary that the US Coast Guard would play that kind of public relations game. That's not the Coast Guard I served.
Really? Unicorns and sea weed seem to be the entire Obama energy "policy" ... priceless....
But it is pretty appalling to hear that Obama's treating the problem this way.
The sad part - regardless of what happens in Nov...we've not only blown 4 years...we've gone backward...the pain will be real...
Thanks Obama!
Holy mackeral what a sensitive woman this is. People use "I believe," "I feel," and "I think" interchangeably. Lighten up.
Sure, just as soon as people like you stop telling people to "lighten up" when they get upset over impending ecological disaster.
EVERY incident like what happened in the Gulf of Mexico, and other such, do cumulative damage to the only biosphere in the entirety of the known universe capable of safely supporting human life!
These matters are not something to remain calm over.
They are not isolated incidents. They are a result of systemic corruption, fraud and negligence.
This would be like going on a ride in a submarine at depth, when the crewmen around you start picking up drills, sledgehammers, and various other tools. Then they begin hammering and drilling at the hull, everywhere you look in horrified disbelief, when water starts coming in, you lose it. When in a frantic state you report to the captain what you have witnessed, as well as your grave concerns and misgivings, he just looks at you, and says:
"Why are you being so sensitive? Lighten up, we believe the hull will hold. And even if it doesn't, we can issue you a pair of water wings to get you safely to the surface. You'll have to inflate them yourself though..."
"Sure, just as soon as people like you stop telling people to "lighten up" when they get upset over impending ecological disaster. "
I'm plenty upset about the damage being done to the environment. I am mad that regulatory agencies seemingly exist to enable reckless behavior (see BP). I believe in Global Warming and am angry that the GOP block cap-and-trade. I appreciate and accept uncomfortable feelings about the way things are going with the environment.
My upset, however, stops at the proper cause. I'm not mad at Ken Salazar for using the wrong word (believe) in a speech. People are human and it's understandable when they have feelings, but when they mis-direct their rage it is a mistake and counterproductive.
Ken Salazar saying "believe" in no way equates to a submarine's perforated hull.
Lighten up ;-)
You PRAY in what you believe but you BET YOUR ASS in what you know.