Green groups act to halt Shell plans

Shell has become the dominant oil major in a controversial Alaskan project at the heart of legal challenges from environmentalists and indigenous peoples against George Bush.

The energy giant has paid the US government millions of dollars for licences in the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska, just 10 miles from the protected Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.

Shell plans to drill this summer but campaigners say environmental impact assessments were rushed through without adequate consultation. They have launched a legal challenge to halt work.

It is the latest blow to a company which has, in recent years, been embroiled in a series of similar disputes in Sakhalin, off the east Russian coast, and in Nigeria.

Eric Jorgensen, managing attorney at Earth Justice said: 'Shell has an obligation to ensure there's sufficient information on which to base an assessment.'

Jeremy Leggett, a member of the government's renewables advisory board, said: 'Shell is planning oil production in the Arctic, from the Canadian tar sands, even from the oil shales. How are we going to turn problems around in 10 years, given Shell's new emissions?'

Shell said it has acted according to frameworks prescribed by the US government. It added that the world will rely on hydrocarbons for many years and that it is a pioneer of alternative fuel technologies.

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