Following Shell, Obama too blocks drilling in the Arctic by suspending the review of applications for new licences. Is this truly the end of a soap opera that has been dragging on for years?
"Yes, no, I don't know, I'd have to think about it." The endless soap opera over drilling in the Arctic Circle seems finally to have reached a conclusion. At least for now. Following the decision by oil company Shell to abandon "drilling activities off the coast of Alaska for the foreseeable future" because it was too costly, the United States government too, through the voice of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, has decided to reverse course and not proceed with applications for oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea.
Shell had decided to throw in the towel in September, following the dramatic fall in oil prices and after having invested seven billion dollars over seven years without extracting a single barrel from the sea, despite forecasts by the US Geological Survey estimating that the Arctic holds 13 per cent of the world's still-unexplored crude oil reserves.
Jewell justified the decision by stating that the cancellation of the licence applications scheduled for 2016 and 2017 was taken both in light of the fall in oil prices on international markets and in consideration of the extremely poor conditions under which exploration activities are carried out.
Environmental organisations are celebrating, even though, unfortunately, much of the decision taken by the Obama administration is, according to many analysts, not the result of their pressure but rather of purely self-interested calculations. It is no coincidence that Michael LeVine of Oceana declared that "these are important steps in the right direction, but this is not the end of Arctic drilling forever." Greenpeace, which for months carried out the kayak protest in Seattle's bay, announced that to mark Obama's positive decision it would "raise its paddles."
The fact that oil is no longer economically viable should, in any case, be welcomed as good news — a sign of the times that shows us how old-school capitalism, based above all on the pursuit and exploitation of fossil fuels, is truly giving way to a more sustainable and balanced model of development.