It's Time to Pause Arctic Oil Drilling!
Hooray! Thanks to you, and thousands of other Earthjustice members, our efforts have paid off! On May 27, the President announced plans to pause offshore oil drilling in the Arctic in light of the Gulf of Mexico spill.
The announcement means plans by the Shell Oil Company to begin exploratory drilling as early as this July are on hold, giving the Arctic Ocean a much needed reprieve from dangerous drilling. If you like this good news, send a message to President Obama!
For more information on this late breaking development, read a message from Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen on President Obama's decision.
What Else Can You Do?
- Take action: Join us in taking action on our current campaigns.
- Learn more: Visit Earthjustice's Arctic campaign, to learn more about our work on the Arctic.
- Read more: Find the latest updates on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on our blog, unEARTHED.
By Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2010; 5:24 PM
President Obama ordered a halt Thursday to drilling operations at all 33 exploratory deep-water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for as long as six months, one of several steps he announced at a news conference where he sought to defend his administration's handling of the spill.
Most of the measures, including a six-month moratorium on new wells, concern future operations. But in perhaps the most dramatic shift, Obama ordered nearly three dozen existing rigs or others preparing to drill to stop operation pending the findings of a presidential commission. Production rigs in deep water may continue to operate, and exploratory drilling in shallow water will continue, White House officials said.
At the news conference, Obama attempted to portray his administration as vigilant in overseeing the response operation since BP's Deepwater Horizon well exploded and sank April 20. He said he has had more meetings on the spill -- which he called "a tragedy" -- than on any other topic since the Afghanistan strategy review last fall.
"The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort," Obama told journalists gathered in the White House East Room for his first formal news conference in 10 months.
Obama appeared defensive throughout much of the hour-long appearance, particularly in trying to define his administration's role in stopping the leak and cleaning up an environmental threat that has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. Opinion polls show that only a minority of Americans approve of the way Obama has handled the disaster, and he noted several times Thursday that he understood the anger and frustration of Gulf Coast residents watching oil lap ashore.
Although he displayed a command of many details of the operations underway, Obama appeared not to know that Elizabeth Birnbaum, the director of Minerals Management Service, had been forced to resign just hours before his news conference.
Obama also acknowledged several times that, while quick and comprehensive, the federal response has not been flawless. He spoke harshly about how federal regulators have managed the oil industry in the past, at one point calling the relationship "cozy and sometimes corrupt." The president praised Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for implementing reforms but said more are needed to protect against spills.
"We can always do better," Obama said.
Obama has sought to cast his administration as coolly competent, in contrast with the previous administration, which he suggests acted impulsively and incompetently. But this crisis, unfolding a mile beneath the sea and being managed day to day by a private company, has tested that reputation at a time when gulf residents in particular are seeking a more emotional response from the president.
At a Wednesday appearance at a solar-panel manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif., Obama called the spill "just heartbreaking" and used it to emphasize the need to pass an energy bill as soon as possible. He made the same case Thursday, saying that "this disaster should serve as a wake-up call to move forward on this legislation," which has been passed by the House and awaits Senate action.
At the end of his news conference, Obama struck an emotional note, describing his daughter, Malia, peaking through the bathroom door as he shaved Thursday morning to ask him, "Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?" He also recalled his childhood in Hawaii where, he said, "the ocean is sacred."
"When we are fouling the earth like this, it has implications not just for this generation but for generations to come," Obama said. "How are we caring for this incredible bounty that we have?"
But Obama defended his spring announcement to allow offshore drilling in places previously off-limits, plans that have now been put on hold. He said the logic he used -- that oil would be a major source of U.S. energy for some time -- held true to this day even as he called for a faster transition to cleaner fuels.
He said he was wrong, though, in thinking "the oil companies had their act together" in having in place safeguards against large-scale spills.
"Those assumptions," he said, "proved to be incorrect."
The spill is creating the most serious environmental crisis in the United States in decades. The latest effort to stop the flow of crude oil into the sea began Wednesday, and officials say they should know soon whether it is taking effect.
After describing the latest "top kill" effort to plug the leak, Obama pledged Thursday to help the people along the Gulf Coast who have been affected by the catastrophe. He also promised that BP would be held "fully accountable."
Despite a massive federal response at the scene, the White House has received withering criticism from all quarters as the sense of frustration with oil giant BP's inability to plug the leak has ballooned. In recent days, the administration has come under increasing pressure to demonstrate that it is fully in control of the situation.
(Watch oil spill cam live feed)
Even Democrats have urged the president to do more, with strategist James Carville, a Louisiana native, telling CNN Wednesday that "the political stupidity of this is just unbelievable."
Aides insist that the government is doing everything it can to hold BP accountable for the spill and to assist the company's frantic effort to stanch the flow of oil at the bottom of the sea. But from the beginning, Obama officials have been forced to work with BP because the oil company, not the government, has the technology and expertise to work at those depths.
The need to rely on the very company that operated the rig has become a political albatross for Obama. His announcement in March that he supported expanded offshore oil drilling has become a political problem since the explosion.
The president announced that he is delaying plans for Shell Oil to conduct exploratory drilling off the coast of Alaska in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, pending further review by the commission. He also said he was extending an existing moratorium on new drilling by six months.
Obama also will cancel lease sales that had been planned for August off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia. The proposed sale in Virginia -- supported by many state officials -- had drawn concern from environmental groups and the Defense Department, which has a large military presence in the area.
Environmentalists praised the decision to delay or cancel plans for new drilling, but the announcement is sure to spark criticism from energy industry officials and their allies, who have argued that the Deepwater Horizon accident does not justify a nationwide ban on offshore oil and gas drilling.
Kierán Suckling, executive director of the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity, called suspending Shell's drilling permit in Alaska this year "the first thing Ken Salazar has done right in response to the Minerals Management Service scandals."
"We applaud the secretary's decision and hope that he permanently ends all new offshore oil drilling in Alaska. Drilling for oil in icy Arctic waters is like playing Russian roulette," Suckling said early Thursday. "There is no way to clean up a spill there and endangered species such as polar bears, whales, walruses and seals are already under too much stress."
But Shell officials have argued that they were planning to drill in shallower waters than BP had, and therefore should not face the same restrictions.
In a May 14 letter, Shell President Marvin Odum wrote to Birnbaum that his company "is committed to undertaking a safe and environmentally responsible exploration program in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in 2010."
Odum outlined an array of precautions that Shell intended to undertake there, including a relief well-drilling plan; having MMS inspectors aboard the Frontier Discoverer rig 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and testing the blowout preventer -- the failure of which was a primary cause of the BP rig explosion -- weekly instead of every two weeks.
But environmental groups such as the World Wildlife Fund argued these safeguards were insufficient, given the remote area in which Shell intended to drill. WWF noted that the company would have only "a few major response vessels, a few thousand feet of boom and about 30 small work boats that would form the basis of their region response" in the event of a spill.
Even as they applauded Obama's decision to restrict drilling, advocates said the administration must take bolder steps.
Suckling noted that a former BP executive serves as U.S. assistant secretary for lands and minerals management. The official, Sylvia Baca, helps oversee MMS.
And Carter Roberts, president of the WWF, said broad changes in U.S. energy policy are needed.
"What is still missing is a solution to the underlying cause of the BP disaster -- our addition to dirty, dangerous oil," Roberts said in a statement. " . . . The catastrophe in the gulf should provide all the impetus needed for the president and Congress to finally pass a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill this year."
Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
