Guardian News and Media/London
The coalition government is failing to protect the Arctic from drilling for oil and gas, by allowing new projects to go ahead with too little scrutiny of their potential risks, the UK’s parliamentary green watchdog has warned.
The MPs urged a moratorium on Arctic drilling, which the coalition has so far rejected, and called on David Cameron to revisit the Arctic, where early in his leadership of the opposition he famously was photographed with huskie dogs.
MPs on the influential environmental audit select committee accused ministers of “complacency” and warned that companies embarking on drilling in the region could not guarantee that they would be able to clean up an oil spill without it causing drastic damage to a pristine landscape.
They found that there was a lack of oil spill response mechanisms that have been proven to be effective in the harsh conditions of the Arctic, where freezing temperatures can make oil stickier and harder to clean, and adverse weather can prevent crews from reaching affected areas for months at a time.
They examined the case of the Kulluk incident at the beginning of this year, when one of Shell’s vessels ran aground in Alaska, although there was no spillage and the vessel was moved to safety.
At the time, a critical report by the US government found that Shell’s safety procedures were not up to scratch, and the company was not properly prepared for potential accidents in the region.
Shell has decided not to drill in the region this year, as a result.
In its report, the committee found: “This case shows that oil companies and regulators are not yet in a position to demonstrate that they can ensure that oil and gas activities will be undertaken in the safest possible way in the Arctic.”
The committee also pointed out that “the world already has more existing oil and gas reserves than we can afford to burn if we are to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change, as many experts have pointed out.”
That fact alone made exploring new reserves in the Arctic “needlessly risky” whatever the short-term financial benefits to companies, the MPs decided.
Joan Walley, chair of the committee, said: “This government is complacently standing by and watching new oil and gas drilling in the region, even though companies like Shell cannot prove they could clean up an oil spill in such harsh conditions. (And) the government has failed to provide a coherent argument to support its view that exploring for oil and gas in the Arctic is compatible with avoiding dangerous climate destabilisation.”
She said that the Kulluk incident had “reinforced the case for a moratorium” on Arctic drilling, and failing that a much more stringent regulatory regime to make drilling companies liable for any damage to the landscape or marine environment arising from their activities. Sea ice in the Arctic last year suffered its most drastic shrinkage since records began, leading to renewed fears of a “tipping point” leading to runaway global warming, because the retreating ice leaves dark areas of sea absorbing more heat, in place of the light-reflecting snow cover.
Lower levels of ice cover have also been tentatively linked to an increase in the frequency of wetter, duller summers in the UK and northern Europe.