Whose Minding Gulf Coast
Beaches?
Lawsuit challenges next big
offshore drilling plan
(Posted June 14, 2011 01:40 am)
TAMPA, FL - Gulf coast environmental watchdogs have
filed a legal challenge in the 11th Federal Circuit
Court in Atlanta, Georgia. They contend the U.S.
government has conducted a flawed environmental risk
assessment of Shell Oil Company's plan to drill for oil
in Gulf of Mexico deep water near the site of BP's
catastrophic 2010 well blowout.
Earthjustice filed the suit on behalf of the Sierra
Club, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the
Gulf
Restoration Network (GRN). They contend that Shell's
drilling plan is not sufficient to protect communities
from another major oil spill along the coasts of
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
GRN's Darden Rice explains why they're challenging the
government's conclusions.
"Most of their risk data came from shallow wells, for
the most part. Shallow wells are far less risky to
operate."
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,
Regulation and Enforcement approved Shell's plan after
concluding that "an accidental spill is not very likely
to occur."
Rice says Florida environmentalists want drilling
proponents to stick to the facts, and leave politics out
of the discussion.
"That means staying away from the intellectual
dishonesty of claims that drilling in state waters would
have anything to do with relieving high gas prices, or
that it would bring Florida jobs."
The Gulf Restoration Network says its review of Shell's
plan shows that a spill at the company's proposed
drilling site could leak six times the amount of crude
that was spilled in the BP disaster, affecting
communities from western Louisiana to Panama City,
Florida.
