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We've rallied in D.C., in New Orleans, and now at Shell's shareholders meeting. But President Obama is STILL considering letting Big Oil corporations drill almost 100 million more acres of the Gulf - just weeks after Shell spilled (another) 90,000 gallons of oil. Share now to stop them!
Friend,
Yesterday Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) held their annual shareholders' meeting in the Netherlands, and they had some unexpected guests. Monique Verdin, a Gulf coast resident and activist with the Indigenous Environmental Network went all the way to the Hague to turn up the heat on Shell over their ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and to call on them to stop drilling and pollution in the Gulf.1
Monique was backed up by a team in the Netherlands, and by a crew of climate activist from the Gulf Coast who held a press conference and teach-in at the same time other activists held events outside Shell's Lousiana offices back home, that also released new details about Shell’s recent 90,000 gallon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.2
Here's what our friends in New Orleans have learned, and shared with Shell (apparently for the first time!) yesterday:
- Shell’s high tech leak detection systems utterly failed. This spill was discovered and reported by a passing helicopter, and Shell only found out later.3
- Clean up vessels have skimmed about 50,000 gallons of oily water as of the Sunday following the accident -- meaning the cleanup is either under-performing, or just plain not happening under the direction of Shell and the Coast Gaurd.3
Shell's spill, the utter failure of their leak detection and clean up plans, and the fact that most shareholders and company executives at the Shareholder meeting were utterly oblivious to the fate of the Gulf of Mexico proves why we have to #KeepItInTheGulf, and ban all new offshore oil drilling right now. You've already sent a message to Obama's team at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), will you share this news online to make sure everyone else does too?
The Gulf region has been used as a pollution sacrifice zone for decades. From Keystone XL’s southern leg to new oil and gas export facilities, too often the Gulf of Mexico gets the drilling, spilling and pollution of the oil and gas industry. To add insult to injury, companies like BP, Exxon and Shell can often lease public lands like the ones BOEM is proposing to auction in this plan for as little as $2 an acre.4 And local communities including the United Houma Nation and Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw are on the verge of paying the ultimate price for decades of oil drilling and neglect, their land, their homes and their way of life.5 Enough is Enough!
Speaking at the Shell Annual Meeting, Monique Verdin, said, “The only way to ensure we protect the water and sanctity of life in and along the Gulf Coast is to put an end to extreme fossil fuel development."6
And yet, despite the ongoing spills and pollution in the Gulf, Obama's BOEM continues to float a plan that would allow for a huge amount of new drilling in the Gulf.7 Click here to share this important action before the June 7 deadline and tell Obama's team to ban all new offshore oil drilling!
Thanks,
Drew and the Keep it In the Gulf crew at Environmental Action
PS - That photo, and footage of this most recent Gulf Spill are from our friends at Vanishing Earth. Click here to see more images and video!
1 - Deirdre Fulton, Gulf Coast Activist Crashes Shell Meeting to Decry Destruction of Her Home, Common Dreams, May 24, 2016
2 - Anne Rolfes, Stakeholders Descend on Shell Shareholder Meeting with New Information re 90,000 Gallon Spill, LA Bucket Brigade Press Release, May 25, 2016
3 - SkyTruth, Oil Spill Response Is A Joke, May 16, 2016
4 - Rainforest Action network, Public Lands, Private Profits, September 28, 2015
5 - Davenport, Coral and Robertson, Campbell. Resettling the First American 'Climate Refugees.' New York Times. May 3, 2016.
6- Kyla Mandel, Interview: Shell Must be ‘Held Accountable to the Future Now’ Says Indigenous Delegate from the Gulf of Mexico, DeSmog Blog UK, May 24, 2016
7 - BOEM , BOEM Completes Draft Multisale Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed 2017-2022 Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales, April 21, 2016
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