Shell resumes offshore drilling in Arctic

The protesters [press release] have been suspending themselves from a bridge and kayakers have been blocking the river to try to prevent a vessel leaving for oil drilling in the Arctic from passing.

EarthFix reporter Tony Schick has been looking into this. The icebreaking vessel Fennica is on its way to Alaska to support Shell’s drilling efforts in the Arctic.

Interior Department officials said last week they expect to approve the deeper drilling quickly once the Fennica has returned to the Arctic. The aesthetics were usually placing: Hanging on wires and linked with each other below the St. John’s Bridge like human-sized cocoons were really 13 Greenpeace activists, their own apple and light colored flags waving within the sexy pleasure.

The ship’s journey will take it beneath the bridge, down the Willamette to the Columbia River which leads to the Pacific Ocean.

The Fennica is designed to protect the drilling fleet from ice and carries the containment dome, a key component of Shell’s oil spill response system.

Police also tried to lower protesters who were dangling from a bridge into the water below.

Members of the Climate Action Coalition in Portland, OR, together with Greenpeace activists made history on July 30 when they forced the MSV Fennica, Shell Oil’s Arctic icebreaker, to stand down, delaying its departure by approximately 40 hours.

The Fennica was broken earlier this month within the Aleutian Islands when it struck an underwater obstruction, tearing a gash in its hull.

On the courtroom listening to Thursday in Anchorage, Gleason stated the hourly wonderful towards Greenpeace would improve over the subsequent few days until the blockade was lifted. By that point, they hoped the Obama administration would have a change of coronary heart on the difficulty.

One of many kayak protesters, Leah Rothlein, borrowed her mom’s kayak and headed onto the river. US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason warned that the fine would jump to $5,000 an hour on Friday, $7,500 an hour on Saturday, and $10,000 an hour on Sunday.

“It’s pretty cool”, the 26-year-old said after coming ashore.

In a press release Thursday night time Greenpeace stated that 26 activists that had been blockading the St. John’s Bridge had all come down from the construction. “I was in the water for four hours”.