NEW ORLEANS (CN) - The Secretary of the Interior approved Shell Oil's proposal to develop eight deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico though Shell's worst-case scenario plan for a well blowout is obviously flawed, and the technology does not yet exist to make drilling safe in waters that deep, environmentalists say.
Earthjustice protested the approval in a letter to the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which estimates the by attorneys for environmental groups, the likelihood of another blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is 1 in 43.
Claiming that only 43 such deepwater wells have been drilled in the Gulf of Mexico - including the ill-fated Macondo well, which blew out in April 20, "the actual risk of catastrophic failure for wells of this nature based on past oil spills is 1 in 43," according to the April 21 letter from Earthjustice.
"No reasonable person would take a 1-in-43 chance of their house burning down, so why in heaven's name would the federal government take a 1-in-43 chance of having another massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?" Earthjustice attorney David Guest said in a statement issued over the weekend.
According to Shell's plan, a worst-case scenario spill from wells 7,200 feet deep - more than 2,000 feet deeper than BP's Macondo well - would result in an oil flow almost seven times more powerful and a volume of oil nine times greater than that of the Deepwater Horizon spill last summer.
Also, according to the plan, dispersants would be the company's primary defense against environmental damage from a spill - though the toxic dispersant Corexit has been blamed for exacerbating problems, and illnesses, from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Three other environmental groups challenged the Interior Secretary's approval of the Shell oil wells in a June 8 petition for review to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.
The Gulf Restoration Network, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club say Shell's permits were approved without full public disclosure, and that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the agencies he oversees have not been forthcoming with information.
In its April 21 letter, attorneys for Earthjustice said the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement approved Shell's exploration plan though it had never been posted for public viewing.
"We object to the Bureau's use of procedure in which it claims to 'open' a plan for comment but never informs the public it is being opened," the letter states. "Second, a review of the website reveals that the comment period was shortened to April 18, 2011, again without notice to the public."
According to Earthjustice's lengthy letter, which cites 88 exhibits, "A worst case scenario spill ... would occur 72 miles from shore, could last 128 days, and result in the discharge of 45 million barrels of oil. ... Shell estimates that the initial first day flow would be 405,000 barrels of oil, which would reduce to an average of 371,000 barrels per day over the course of a month. ... By comparison, the Deepwater Horizon disaster resulted in a spill of approximately 60,000 barrels of oil per day for a total of approximately 5 million barrels over 83 days."
Earthjustice claims the government's own analysis of Gulf of Mexico spill data calculates the risk of another disastrous oil spill as being greater than the chances of a woman giving birth to identical twins.