The House of Lords has released its report on the Arctic. The report is encyclopedic in its coverage of issues dealing with the Arctic and has a detailed coverage of governance issues.
CRE respectfully disagrees with one of the conclusions in the report:
“The European Union’s case for permanent observer status at the Arctic Council is overwhelming.”
A major flaw in the report is that the aforementioned statement is inconsistent with the following statement in the report:
The Lords committee says with the Arctic warming fast, there will be huge challenges and opportunities for the environment, ecosystems and people.
It recommends an increase in government science budgets focusing on the Arctic.
And the committee also says oil firms should re-consider their plans for drilling in the region.
Editor’s Note: If the following story is accurate it is alarming to learn of the substantial foreign presence at established US organizations. We encourage members of the public who have any data which either supports or rejects the statements made below to post them in the comment section.
February 8, 2015
The anger, outrage and frustration in Alaska are palpable after the president stripped the state of vast stores of its oil and gas wealth. His reckless offshore oil and gas restrictions reduced Alaska’s Arctic Ocean presence to one exploration site each in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and left us with the lowest number of prospects in the history of the Outer Continental Shelf leasing program.
From: KTOO.org
By Liz Ruskin – APRN, Washington DC
After Shell’s troubled 2012 drilling season in the far north, the Interior Department began working on Arctic-specific standards for offshore drilling. But those new standards aren’t done yet. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says they won’t be in place to guide Shell’s planned return to the Chukchi Sea this year.
“As Shell indicated just recently that they were going to go forward with their exploration plan this summer, we’ll be holding them to the standards that we’ve held them to before, with upgrades and proof that they can do what they say they do before they’re allowed to go up there,” Jewell told reporters in a press call today, primarily talking about the president’s budget for her department.
