The Environmental Protection Agency approved air permits Monday for Shell Oil, which hopes to drill offshore for oil in Alaska's Arctic. The permits authorize air emissions from Shell’s exploration drilling with the Discoverer drillship and a support fleet of icebreakers, oil spill response vessels, and supply ships for up to 120 days each year. Shell plans to begin exploration drilling in 2012. According to the EPA, the agency's decision to grant the air permits was "based in part on installation of state-of-the-art pollution reduction controls on the Discoverer drillship to meet best available control Ttechnology requirements and to comply with ... air quality standards. The permits also require Shell to reduce air emissions by using Selective Catalytic Reduction and Oxidation Catalyst controls on two icebreakers, Catalytic Diesel Particulate Filters on the Nanuq oil spill response vessel and Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel fuel on the Discoverer drillship and all vessels in the support fleet."
What about the soot? that is the part that counts and soot melts thesea ice. It appears that Shell is calling that tub they had down in Adak(?) a drilling ship and it is not. Shell needs two real drilling ship working together on same structure to be safe. Or safer.
About time. They'll figure out spill response when it happens. Oil is a natural substance, its not like it didn't come for "precious mother earth." Get out of the way, environmentalists and let energy exploration take place again.
Print 
Single Page
Comments