President Obama Defends Alaska Offshore Drilling

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Saturday defended his determination to permit Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil within the Arctic Ocean below what he stated had been rigorous requirements, warding off criticism by environmental teams.

His message comes on the forward of a three-day tour of Alaska aimed toward drawing consideration to highly effective photographs of melting glaciers and eroding coastlines as a “wakeup call” to Americans within the Lower 48 states in regards to the pressing want to deal with local weather change.

The journey is a part of a broad marketing campaign to seal a global deal later this 12 months to curb carbon emissions, one thing the White House hopes will cap Obama’s legacy on local weather throughout his time in workplace.

It additionally highlights inherent contradictions in his local weather and vitality insurance policies. While Obama pushes the world to wean itself from fossil fuels, his administration gave Shell the inexperienced mild earlier this month to drill within the oil-rich Chukchi Sea.

Environmental teams argue that Arctic drilling will expose whales, walruses and polar bears to dangers of spills, and can develop the form of vitality manufacturing blamed for local weather change.

“I share people’s concerns about offshore drilling,” Obama stated in his weekly deal with.

“I remember the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico all too well,” he stated, referring to the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig that killed 11 folks and spewed hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil into the ocean.

Obama identified that Shell purchased its exploration leases earlier than he took workplace – when George W. Bush was president – and stated his administration set “the highest standards possible” for the drilling.

The U.S. financial system wants oil and gasoline till it makes the “transition” to renewable vitality and may rely on home fossil fuels somewhat than imports, he stated.

In Alaska, Obama will deal with a global arctic convention in Anchorage on Monday and meet with Alaska Governor Bill Walker and a few native leaders.

On Tuesday, he’ll hike on a receding glacier close to the city of Seward. The subsequent day, he’ll journey to the salmon-fishing city of Dillingham on Bristol Bay earlier than flying into the small city of Kotzebue north of the Arctic Circle – the primary time a sitting U.S. president will journey that far north.

Obama will announce new insurance policies to assist communities adapt to local weather change and deploy renewable vitality, stated Brian Deese, Obama’s high adviser on local weather points, throughout a convention name with reporters.

The local weather focus of Obama’s tour has rattled some folks in Alaska, which will depend on oil and gasoline for 90 % of its revenues and a 3rd of its jobs.

“People are worried that folks with apparently good intentions will shut down our area,” stated Richard Savik Glenn, govt vice chairman on the Arctic Slope Regional Corp, a useful resource firm owned by 12,000 Inupiat native peoples. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Leslie Adler)