Federal officials overseeing a Shell Oil request to drill in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico are relying on false assumptions and accepting inadequate safety standards to prevent a repeat of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, environmentalists charged Thursday in a complaint filed in federal court to stop it.
Less than a year after oil stopped flowing from the worst spill in U.S. history, a coalition of environmental groups, including Sierra Club, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Gulf Restoration Network, filed suit in the U.S. 11th District Court of Appeals in Atlanta to stop federal officials from giving the company permission to drill in deep water about 70 miles off the Louisiana coast.
The group, represented by Earthjustice, says the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, is relying on data that underestimates the risk of another deepwater spill while the company lacks the proper emergency equipment to handle an accident if it were to occur.
Shell officials have estimated the chance of a spill at less than 1 in 10,000, a figure that federal officials used in approving the companys request to drill a series of wells in 7,200 feet of water.
Shell has asked permission to drill eight deepwater wells in the region, three of which had already been approved.
The plaintiffs contend the risk data come from mostly shallow wells, which are far less risky to operate. Their own analysis of deepwater rigs points to a 1 in 43 chance of a spill. They also say that safety protocols and machinery needed to respond to a deepwater blowout wont be in place until 2012.
No reasonable person would agree to a 2.5 percent chance of having their house catch on fire, Earthjustice Attorney David Guest told the News Service Thursday.
Shells plans were approved in May, the second such deepwater plans to be approved following the BP spill. Federal officials have approved a total of seven new wells since October 2010. Another 38 revised new well plans have also been approved.
"This exploration plan was reviewed under the heightened standards we are now using to conduct site-specific environmental assessments, BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich said of the Shell approval in May. The standards are higher than they used to be, and further support our goal of ensuring that deepwater exploration is done more safely and with greater protections for the environment than ever before."
