Energy in America: EPA Rules Force  Shell to Abandon Oil Drilling Plans

By Dan Springer

Published April 25, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion  dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases  alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar  air permits for a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico would take about 45  days. He?s especially frustrated over the appeal board?s suggestion that the  Arctic drill would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. ?We  think the issues were really not major,? Slaiby said, ?and clearly not impactful  for the communities we work in.?

The closest village to where Shell proposed to drill  is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United States.  According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the  residents are Alaska natives. The village, which is 1 square mile, sits right  along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore  drill site.

The EPA?s appeals board ruled that Shell had not  taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating  overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project. Environmental groups were  thrilled by the ruling.

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April 28, 2011

Obama Regime Uses Tiny Lizard as Pretext to Strangle Texas Oil Industry

Posted by Van Helsing at April 28, 2011  8:13 AM

Obama et al. have used the spill by his crony capitalist bankrollers at BP as a pretext to shut down oil drilling in the gulf, and the exhaust fumes from an icebreaker to choke off Alaska, but how to justify suppressing land drilling in the desert wastes of West Texas? Here's how:

A three-inch lizard that thrives in desert conditions could shut down oil and gas operations in portions of Southeast New Mexico and in West Texas, including the state's top two oil producing counties.

Called the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, it is being considered for inclusion on the federal Endangered Species listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ?

"We are very concerned about the Fish and Wildlife Service listing," said Ben Shepperd, president of the [Permian Basin Petroleum Association], noting the service also has proposed listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken next year. "The wolf at the door is the lizard; we're concerned listing it would shut down drilling activity for a minimum of two years and as many as five years while the service determines what habitat is needed for the lizard. That means no drilling, no seismic surveys, no roads built, no electric lines."

As an added bonus, pretending that lizards are "endangered" would also cripple local agriculture:

Not only would the move impact oil and gas operations but agriculture, Shepperd noted, shutting down agricultural activities like grazing and farming — "anything that disturbs the habitat."