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In 2010 President Obama oversaw the worst oil disaster in our nation’s history. As an unstoppable torrent of oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico for three straight months, he addressed the nation, urging, “we cannot consign our children to this future,” and “the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.”*
But today, rather than heed his own words, he seems more determined to break his own record.
The Obama administration last week issued Shell a conditional approval to drill in the Arctic, one of the most dangerous and risky places to drill for oil on earth. Shell still needs a final permit, which it is almost certain to get – unless we can force the president to change course.
Tell President Obama: Don’t drill the Arctic. Sign the petition and we’ll deliver it to the president with the text of his speech from the Gulf oil spill.
No one can safely drill in the Arctic. The Department of Interior has said there is a 75% chance of a spill greater than 1,000 barrels.1 The last time Shell tried drilling in 2012, its drilling rig ran aground in rough arctic waters. This year, one of its drilling rigs has already failed a Coast Guard inspection.
At a time when global warming is already melting polar ice at an alarming rate, allowing Shell to unleash the Arctic’s massive pool of carbon on our atmosphere is literally crazy. As Bill McKibben wrote last week in the New York Times, “It’s as if the tobacco companies were applying for permission to put cigarette machines in cancer wards.”2
Tell President Obama: Don’t drill the Arctic.
Of all people, President Obama should know better. But rather than trying not to repeat the Gulf oil spill, the President is using it to dismiss criticism of this terrible decision. “I think it’s fair to say that I know a little something about the risks of offshore drilling, given what happened in the Gulf very early in my presidency,” he said last week.
The decision doesn’t just show a short memory and terrible judgement. Allowing Arctic drilling underscores the dangerous and deeply flawed logic behind President Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy – that we can drill, frack and mine our way to a clean energy future.
That’s deeply concerning as we await President Obama’s decision on Keystone XL and other infrastructure projects that would massively increase the extraction of tar sands crude.
It’s been five years since President Obama called out that “we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires”because of “a lack of political courage and candor.” Yet he still is trying to have it both ways.
We know that President Obama does respond to public pressure. It has staved off approval of Keystone XL. And now we need it more than ever to save the Arctic.
Tell President Obama: Don’t drill the Arctic. Sign the petition and we’ll deliver it to the president with his own words from the Gulf oil catastrophe.
Thanks for fighting Arctic drilling
Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
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