Environmental and Alaska native groups will try to keep Shell Oil out of Arctic waters this summer by appealing against an air permit that was granted by America’s Environmental Protection Agency.
The nine groups have sued in the US courts, asking judges to send the permit granted to the Shell drilling ship, Noble Discoverer, back to the EPA for reconsideration.
“We believe the permit failed to ensure that all air pollution controls are in place and that all standards are met for this major new source of pollution in the Arctic,” said Colin O’Brien, a lawyer for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm representing the groups.
Shell is to use the Noble Discoverer to drill three exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea, off north-west Alaska during the open water season this year.
It hopes to use a second drill ship, the Kulluk, to drill wells in the Beaufort Sea, off the north coast.
A successful appeal of previous air permits played a part in Shell’s decision to cancel Chukchi and Beaufort drilling for 2011. In that case, the EPA concluded an analysis of the impact of nitrogen dioxide emissions on Alaska native communities was too limited.
The protesters claim the drill ship and other vessels in Shell’s fleet will pump tens of thousands of tons of pollution into Arctic skies, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate. They say greenhouse gases and black carbon from the fleet will accelerate the loss of snow and ice in the Arctic due to climate warming.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace said the UK should not block moves which would effectively ban the use of polluting “tar sands” for fuel in Europe. It urged Britain to disregard lobbying from Canada and oil companies against attempts to prevent the unconventional oil being used in the EU.
If tar sands – which produce more emissions than conventional oil due to the energy required to extract them – are fully exploited it will be “game over” for the climate, campaigners say.
The European Commission has proposed to rule tar sands as more polluting than conventional transport fuels under the Fuel Quality Directive, which commits the bloc to cutting emissions from the production of transport fuel used in Europe by 6% by 2020.