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For Immediate Release

Obama Administration Gives Shell Green Light to Drill in Arctic

The Department of the Interior announced today that it has approved Shell's plan for exploratory oil drilling in Alaska's Chukchi Sea this summer. The Center for Biological Diversity's Alaska Director Rebecca Noblin issued this statement in response:

"It's deeply troubling to see the Obama administration give the oil industry the green light to drill in the Arctic. Not only does it put the Arctic's pristine landscapes at a huge risk for oil spills and industrial development but it's utterly incompatible with President Obama's rhetoric to address the climate crisis.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

The Department of the Interior announced today that it has approved Shell's plan for exploratory oil drilling in Alaska's Chukchi Sea this summer. The Center for Biological Diversity's Alaska Director Rebecca Noblin issued this statement in response:

"It's deeply troubling to see the Obama administration give the oil industry the green light to drill in the Arctic. Not only does it put the Arctic's pristine landscapes at a huge risk for oil spills and industrial development but it's utterly incompatible with President Obama's rhetoric to address the climate crisis.

"The Interior Department bent over backward to rush Shell's permit through the regulatory process so it could move its drillships into the Arctic this summer. Considering Shell ran its drillship aground in Alaska in 2012, it's hard to fathom how the federal government can rationalize rubber-stamping Shell's second try at Arctic drilling.

"Arctic drilling is a step in the exact wrong direction. Scientists tell us that if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to keep Arctic oil in the ground. Arctic drilling gives us a 75 percent chance of an oil spill and a 100 percent chance of climate catastrophe. Interior should send Shell packing."

At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.

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