Green groups have urged the US Department of Interior to withdraw its conditional approval for Royal Dutch Shell‘s Arctic oil exploration plan.
Nonprofit environmental law organisation Earthjustice submitted a letter to interior secretary Sally Jewell on behalf of ten green groups requesting to reconsider the decision.
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The group claimed that the approval goes against the US rules set for protection of marine mammals.
Earthjustice staff attorney Holly Harris stated in the letter sent to Sally Jewell: "The walrus rules are in place to protect these remarkable animals from the damaging effects of offshore drilling and Shell knew those rules and, in fact commented on this very provision.
"The company nonetheless chose to ignore them when it submitted its plan to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Interior cannot allow Shell to flout the government’s own requirements for protecting Arctic wildlife."
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In May, the US department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved Shell’s plan to drill in the Arctic Ocean’s Chukchi Sea in July.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Earthjustice, if approved, the project of this size will create sound disturbances and cause distress to whales and seals, while polluting water and air in the region.
The environment group also alleged that drilling any spill in the region could be catastrophic as it could not be cleaned in Arctic waters.
Earthjustice sent the letter on behalf of Alaska Wilderness League, Audubon Alaska, Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, League of Conservation Voters.
Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Alaska Environmental Center and Ocean Conservancy, Oceana, and Sierra Club were among the other green groups that supported the letter.
The letter further noted deficiencies in drilling plan and permit applications of Shell in addition to a lapse in the plans’ ability to correspond with the US Fish and Wildlife regulations to protect the Pacific walrus.
Image: Shell’s drilling proposal will adversely affect marine mammals. Photo: courtesy of Sarah Sonsthagen / US Geological Survey.
