Some offshore Arctic waters to be leased for energy drilling, US says
Parts of America’s Arctic waters, long a battleground between environmentalists and the energy industry, will be open for oil and natural gas drilling in four years, the Obama administration said Tuesday -- the same day Shell announced it had successfully tested a new spill containment system for its planned Arctic exploration this summer.
Details will be released Thursday, but Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters the idea is to adopt "targeted leasing" -- opening some areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas for drilling while protecting others critical for native subsistence and ecosystem health.
Shell is awaiting the final permits to explore in the region this summer, and on Tuesday said a device to cap any spill was successfully tested in waters off Seattle. "The capping stack was deployed to a depth consistent with the shallow water scenario we will encounter off the coast of Alaska," the oil giant said in a statement.
How the industry prepares for spills has come under greater scrutiny since the 2010 BP oil spill disaster, where the containment system failed.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/26/12422295-some-offshore-arctic-waters-to-be-leased-for-energy-drilling-us-says?lite
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