Alaska Native and conservation groups filed suit Dec. 15 asking the courts to stop Shell Oil from beginning exploration next year in the Beaufort Sea.
The lawsuits were filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the day before the deadline for challenging the federal Minerals Management Service decision approving Shell's offshore exploration plan.
One of the petitions, filed on behalf of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the federally recognized tribe of the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, argues that MMS failed to consider the cumulative impacts of Shell's plan to drill in both the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The suit also said that MMS removed safeguards for bowhead whales that the National Marine Fisheries Service included in reviewing a 2007 Shell plan to drill in the Beaufort Sea.
"People want the oil and gas, and we understand that, but the government and the offshore operators need to understand that development has to be done in a way that does not threaten our subsistence livelihood and culture," said Harry Brower, chairman of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. "We depend on the bowhead whale for food."
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith issued a statement saying that the oil company has demonstrated its ability to operate in the Arctic in an environmentally responsible manner.
"Shell has gone to great lengths to minimize the impact of our drilling program, including a voluntary shut-down during the fall subsistence whaling harvest of Nuiqsut and Kaktovik, installing best available discharge technology and refusing the number of wells," he said. "These steps were taken after considering direct feedback from North Slope stakeholders."
The environmental group Earthjustice filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of the Native Village of Point Hope, Alaska Wilderness League, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Oceana, Pacific Environment, the Sierra club and Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands.
That lawsuit said that the Interior Department's approval of Shell's drilling "without adequate environmental analysis is a step in the wrong direction."
The filings will initiate a judicial review process, which could take six to nine months. Both plaintiffs also can seeking a preliminary injunction to halt exploration until the court reaches its decision.
