A man holds a sign in support of Shell as activists protest their exploration of Alaska's coast. ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT Obama administration OKs Shell bid to drill for oil in Arctic

The Obama administration on Monday gave Shell the go-ahead to expand its multibillion-dollar attempt at Arctic offshore oil drilling, aggravating environmentalists just two weeks after the president basked in their praise for pushing an aggressive climate change plan.

The move, which opens up another potential gap between President Barack Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, allows Shell to drill into the oil- and gas-bearing zones in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, a remote and challenging environment where green groups had fought hard to keep the company away from threatened walruses and polar bears.


The expanded permits approved by the Interior Department allow Shell to tap into oil- and gas-bearing zones in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, a remote and challenging environment where green groups had fought hard to keep the company away from threatened walruses, polar bears and sea ice.

Shell last got permission to drill that deeply into the Chukchi, which is estimated to hold more recoverable oil and gas than any coastal area outside the Gulf of Mexico, between 1989 and 1991.

Since its beleaguered 2012 Arctic drilling season ended with a rig running aground while being towed out of Alaska on New Year’s Eve, Shell has beaten back a colorful campaign by eco-activists to disrupt its return to the Last Frontier. Protesters have turned to obstruction by kayaking near the rig as it left harbor in Seattle, dangling from a bridge in Oregon to block a Shell icebreaker, issuing viral videos and circulating old-fashioned legal petitions.

But the administration insisted on Monday that it had thoroughly vetted the operations before giving its final approval.

“Activities conducted offshore Alaska are being held to the highest safety, environmental protection, and emergency response standards,” Brian Salerno, director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said in a statement.

Climate activists who implored Obama to keep the oil industry out of the Arctic’s waters say tapping its oil and gas resources would embarrassingly undercut his work to make the fight against global warming into a legacy issue. And Clinton, facing skepticism among many on the environmental left, appeared to side with them July 29 by telling a New Hampshire television station that “I have doubts about whether we should continue drilling in the Arctic.”

The Democratic presidential front-runner has previously said she favors shielding more areas from drilling but has opposed banning it on all public lands and waters. Environmental groups livid after Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement approved Shell’s plans are highly likely to press Clinton to move further left on Arctic oil and gas.

“Last week, President Obama said climate change puts Alaska at the ‘front lines of one of the greatest challenges we face this century,’ and yet today he approved Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic,” Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said in a statement. “The president cannot have it both ways.”

Shell got Interior’s green light to begin work in the Chukchi last month, but that permit blocked the company from oil- and gas-bearing zones beyond 3,000 feet below the surface until a damaged icebreaker ship could return to the area with required safety equipment. The repaired vessel got back to the Arctic in recent days, setting the stage for a final OK of Shell’s drilling plan.

The approval is good for this year’s summer season, set to end in late September.

Shell’s troubled 2012 drilling effort stopped short of oil- and gas-bearing zones in the Chukchi after Interior denied the permits, citing the failure of required safety equipment. An Interior review released in 2013 attributed the stumble to “shortcomings in Shell’s management and oversight of key contractors.”

The company drilled four exploration wells in the Chukchi between 1989 and 1991, according to Interior, including one located in the same Burger Prospect area off the Alaskan coast that Shell is seeking to tap this year. That early effort was abandoned after it yielded mostly natural gas, though newer geological data shows the likelihood that oil is also present.

Shell’s current Alaskan offshore drilling program carries particular urgency for the company, which already has sunk a reported $7 billion-plus into the Arctic even as it slashes spending elsewhere during a historic downturn in oil prices. It’s also crucial for Alaska, where the swoon in crude prices has crunched the state’s budgets and heightened the importance of new discoveries, even in federal waters that don’t yield direct royalty money to the state treasury.