SHELL HIRES HEAVY HITTER FOR SHALE

With oil prices hovering at about $60/barrel, record profits last year and a vast swath of the Gulf of Mexico set to be opened to oil & gas development, Shell Oil seems to be pretty set up for another successful year. The multi-national corporation closed out the year with a new hire that should allow them to make the most of the waning days of the Bush Administration, adding former Interior Secretary and enviro enemy no. 1 Gale Norton as General Counsel.

As current Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorn was making the rounds discussing the Fish & Wildlife Service's proposal to add polar bears to the endangered species list due to the impacts of climate change, it's easy to imagine his predecessor getting her affairs in order to head up a full-scale push to gain federal support for oil shale development. Of course, there are very few actions that would do more to doom polar bears (and all coastal cities) then paving the road to U.S. energy independence with shale.

For every big enviro effort that Shell proudly backs (America's Wetland, the Restore America's Estuaries conference) , another news item casts doubt on their environmental commitment. Whether our concerns about their open-loop, fish-killing machine in the Gulf - or the myriad of concerns across the globe, this recent staffing decision does nothing to ease doubts.

Aaron Viles is the GRN's Campaign Director