Shell Says It Will Only 'Encounter' 90% of Arctic Oil Spill Near the Rig, Not Recover the Oil

By Mat McDermottEnergy / Energy Disasters

Max Braun/CC BY-SA 2.0

Remember Shell's assertion that it would be able to recover 90% of any oil spilled as a result of its planned Arctic oil drilling? Well, Shell is backtracking from that.

Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith, quoted by the Washington Post:

We say in our plan we expect to 'encounter' 90 percent of any discharge on site, very close to the drilling rig. We expect to 'encounter' 5 percent near-shore between the drilling rig and the coast. And we expect to 'encounter' another 5 percent on shore. We never make claims about the percent we could actually recover, because conditions vary, of course.

Now recall that the head of the Coast Guard has testified before Congress that there's effectively no way of actually cleaning up an oil spill in icy water.

Shell's obfuscation of their ability to clean up after an Arctic oil spill (when, not if, one happens) aside, a coalition of environmental groups has just filed a lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement's drilling approval.

Earth Justice explains:

We have been forced to court to make sure the Arctic Ocean is protected and Shell is prepared, as mandated by law. BSEE rubber-stamped plans that rely on unbelievable assumptions, include equipment that has never been tested in Arctic conditions, and ignore the very real possibility that a spill could continue through the winter. The agency has not met minimum legal standards to be sure that Shell’s plans could be effective and that Shell has sufficient boats, resources, and spill responders to remove a ‘worst-case’ oil spill in the Arctic Ocean to the ‘maximum extent practicable.’ Even after Deepwater Horizon, Interior Secretary Salazar brushed aside concerns about Shell’s spill response capabilities, stating recently that 'there is not going to be an oil spill'. 
 
The American people deserve more. There have been no tests of spill response equipment in US Arctic waters since 2000 and those equipment tests were ‘a failure.'...Even in relatively favorable conditions, less than 10 percent of spilled oil was recovered after the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez spills. In the Arctic, sea ice, harsh weather, high seas, darkness and wind may render even that level of cleanup impossible.

Hear, hear.

The amount of hubris and just good old fashioned bullshit that has combined here to allow Shell to drill in the Arctic is truly astonishing.

Source: Treehugger