His administration?s own studies concluded that there is a 75 percent risk of an oil spill if such offshore leases are developed; never mind that Shell made a huge mess of it last time it drilled in the region, in 2012, when it was forced to withdraw after an embarrassing series of accidents; never mind that polar bears, reindeer, and other iconic Arctic species are already under severe threat of extinction.
The unavoidable damage to the climate alone should suffice to rule out further drilling in the Arctic. If humanity is to limit global temperature rise even to 2 degrees Celsius, as Obama got world leaders to agree at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, the science is clear: All Arctic oil?and in fact, at least two-thirds of all remaining oil, gas and coal on earth?must be left underground.
Obama Is a Climate Hypocrite. His Trip to Alaska Proves It. | Mother Jones
the water there is also too icy for his oil spill clean up rules and regulations:
The oil spill response plan approved by the Obama administration today fails to address barriers to cleaning up an oil spill in the icy, unpredictable and inhospitable Arctic waters and poses unacceptably high risks to marine life, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-...-arctic-waters
any ideas why he did that (on the eve of his climate change trip to Alaska)?