Green groups: Obama’s Arctic drilling plan violates ‘walrus rules’

Environmental groups are calling on the Obama administration to rescind Royal Dutch Shell’s Arctic Ocean drilling permit because it violates laws meant to protect walruses.

Earthjustice and 10 other state and national green organizations told Interior Secretary Sally Jewell Tuesday that when Shell drills two exploratory wells this summer in the Chukchi Sea, the rigs will be too close together.

{mosads}The letter they sent represents the latest front in greens’ multi-pronged, high-stakes push to stop the Obama administration from reopening the Arctic to offshore oil and natural gas drilling.

It says that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act require rigs in habitats of the Pacific walrus to be at least 15 miles apart “to avoid significant synergistic or cumulative effects from multiple oil and gas exploration activities on foraging or migrating walruses.”

Shell’s drilling plan, which got conditional approval from Interior in May, does not comply, since the two rigs would only be about nine miles apart.

“The walrus rules are in place to protect these remarkable animals from the damaging effects of offshore drilling and Shell knew those rules,” Earthjustice attorney Holly Harris said in a statement, urging the Fish and Wildlife Service to reject Shell’s application to drill in a way that could harm walruses.

“The company nonetheless chose to ignore them when it submitted its plan to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean,” she said. “Interior cannot allow Shell to flout the government’s own requirements for protecting Arctic wildlife.”

Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said the company is actively working with Interior officials to obtain the remaining permits, including the one that concerns wildlife protections.