Shell Oil’s Arctic Challenger Containment Dome Fails in Perfect Weather – 2012 Drilling to Oil Called Off

Early Monday morning, Shell Oil announced that its plan of drilling all the way into oil, inside the crust of the bottom of the Arctic Ocean off the shores of Alaska, were crushed.  Their own technology, the vaunted containment dome, said to incorporate all the lessons learned from capping the Deepwater Horizon spill, was severely damaged in perfect late summer weather, while being tested on Puget Sound:

Shell is giving up for the year on drilling for oil in Arctic waters off Alaska after another setback to its troubled oil spill containment barge.

The company announced the decision Monday after testing of the Arctic Challenger, the oil spill containment barge the company has been unable to get ready and certified to support its Arctic Alaska exploration. Shell said that, while it will abandon its effort to drill into oil-bearing zones this year, it will drill “top holes” to get ready for next year.

“During a final test, the containment dome aboard the Arctic Challenger barge was damaged. It is clear that some days will be required to repair and fully assess dome readiness,” the company said in a written statement.

Environmental activists from Greenpeace, and being represented by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, have been pushing for the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to conduct more rigorous tests on the equipment Shell has vaunted as being the best in the world for winter conditions in the Arctic.  That the key spill containment feature failed in lake-like conditions near Bellingham Bay on Puget Sound is an indicator that the concerns of activists such as ex-Prof. Rick Steiner (hounded from his post at the University of Alaska by the Bush and Obama administrations, at the behest of Shell), and Subhankar Banerjee (who was a guest Sunday at firedoglake’s Book Salon) have legitimacy, and that Shell may be setting us up for as bad a record in the Arctic as they have on the Niger Delta.

I’ve been concerned about the package represented by the Arctic Challenger since I found out in late July that Shell was refitting the barge I had worked exactly thirty years ago into a role I knew it was not suited for:

Although the Arctic Challenger was not needed as an icebreaker in 1982, it had been tried in that role earlier, and was found to be poorly designed.  It didn’t draw a lot of water – 4.1 feet empty – so, after having been broken by the bows,  ice would creep along underneath the hull and ultimately foul the props and rudders of the propelling tugs.  Not good when you’re 3,000 miles from Seattle.

Crew members of towing tugs had been injured over the five years since the barge’s completion, and it was not considered to be a “good luck” barge in fleet scuttlebutt.It never really found a niche after the Sealifts were over.  It languished, being shuttled from Seattle to the Gulf of Mexico to Coos Bay, Oregon, where it stayed for a long time.

On August 8th, I attempted to take a close look at the work being done in Bellingham Bay on the Arctic Challenger.  I was thwarted and followed by Shell rent-a-cops out of town:

I’m on my way back from Bellingham.  I visited the Port of Bellingham Dock this morning, where the barge Arctic Challenger is being modified by contractors for Shell Oil, to be used as their oil spill containment vessel for offshore drilling operations in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

I managed to get through two levels of security, being escorted the entire time.  At the third level, as I was explaining I hoped to get definitive information on the nature and extent of the stern modifications, bells and whistles started going off in the heads of the contractor’s people at hand.  I was sequestered away in the office of a fairly anal firewall type guy, until several security people and what appeared to be the project manager came in.

I was told the stern notch is being decked over and compartmentalized permanently.  It will never be pushed again as an icebreaker. Instead, he stated, an icebreaking tug, similar to the Swedish tug Tor Viking II, will be assigned to the Arctic Challenger from the time it leaves Puget Sound until its duties in the Arctic are over.  He stated that, summer or winter, when the vessel is deployed in the drilling areas, it will not be moored or anchored, but will be moving or drifting.

I thanked him for the best information anyone has yet given me, and requested a tour of the project.  He flatly told me “No,” and I was not allowed to take any photographs of the vessel.  He assured me that Shell Oil will be contacting me soon with more information.

The ambience of the work place there reminded me very much of projects in the past where I have worked that are seriously behind schedule and nervous of potential outcomes.

I was followed by private police until I left Bellingham.

Bad luck barge? A project long nervous about potential outcomes?  Incapable of passing dumbed down tests in flat calm weather?  Is this what we will have next year, after Shell cobbles together something that can somehow get certified as adequate?

I hope not!

Look at the image at the top, of the barge, being towed into Bellingham Bay.  It is supposed to have a crew of scores of people, when deployed.  Would you like to be on that thing in an 80-knot blow anywhere, let alone the Arctic Ocean?

Meanwhile, Shell hopes to continue drilling into the crust, to a distance short of where the oil is supposed to be:

Shell is required to finish any drilling operations in advance of the arrival of sea ice that could pose a problem for containing spills. The company had hoped for an extension of its Sept. 24 deadline for drilling in the Chukchi Sea. But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he wouldn’t consider the request until the spill containment barge was ready and certified.

Shell is now abandoning for this year the effort to drill into oil-bearing zones. But the company plans to drill as many “top holes” as possible this drilling season in hopes of making progress toward next year.

“The top portion of the wells drilled in the days and weeks ahead will be safely capped and temporarily abandoned this year, in accordance with regulatory requirements,” the company said in its written statement.

Shell has had problems with even such preliminary drilling.

The company last week had to halt the effort the day after it began when sea ice started moving toward the drill ship.

Shell said the drill ship, the Noble Discoverer, is expected to resume its position in the Chukchi Sea and start work again in the coming days. Shell said it also plans to start operations in the Beaufort Sea soon following the fall Inupiat whaling season.

image:  The Arctic Challenger, being towed to its berth in Bellingham Bay, by a Tug (possibly the Garth Foss), after the failure of its spill containment system in a test on Puget Sound. Photo by Todd Guiton, published by the Bellingham Herald

Voter ID Laws - Voter Protection or Voter Suppression? ...Duh...

The unprecedented movement by the far right to push through restrictive voter identification laws is widely seen, with good reason, as an effort to quash votes that tend to go to the more liberal candidate.

Some voter ID requirements are more reasonable than others. Alaska's, for instance is similar to those in a number of other states (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, for instance), in not requiring a photo ID, but requiring proof of identity, if challenged.

Here's what our division of elections states in this regard at their web site:

When entering your polling place, the election worker will ask you for a piece of identification.  

The following documents may be used for identification:  signed voter ID card, driver's license, state ID card, or military ID card; passport, hunting or fishing license; or other current or valid photo identification.  

You may also present one of the following forms of identification if it includes your name and current address: current utility bill or pay check; government check or bank statement; or other government issued document.  

After presenting identification, you will sign your name on the precinct register. When doing this, check your residence address listed. If your residence address is incorrect, tell the election worker and vote a questioned ballot. This will allow the Division of Elections to update your voter registration record with your correct residence address 

If you do not have identification or your name does not appear on the precinct register, you must vote a questioned ballot.

I usually have my voter card and drivers license handy, but often know many of the volunteers at the precinct.  At the primary, where I voted at Colony Middle School, everyone there knew me, and I just signed in.  Afterward, we caught up on how our kids are doing in their young adulthood.

The April Anchorage election was a sign that right wing administration-hired hacks can do as much damage by just being dumb fucks as by intentionally screwing with people.  I've voted at a lot of precincts run by people who knew my political values are distinctly different from theirs, but have never had a hassle.

Here's a good video on why the wave of voter ID laws - mostly in Red or Swing states - are nefarious: This November is going to be a very important election.

Locally, the October local elections will be important too.

My view is that any time somebody is required to go to an expense to obtain ID specifically needed to vote, and only to vote, it is an illegal poll tax.

Come To Our Mark Masteller for Borough Mayor Fundraiser Saturday Afternoon

Judy and I are hosting a fundraiser Saturday afternoon for Mark Masteller, candidate for Mat-Su Borough Mayor.

People are ready for change.  The administration of Larry DeVilbiss has been rife with ineptitude.  He is all too ready to sell out our kids' and grandkids' futures for one unsustainable project after another.  One ferry boast-like idea after another.  One more move to cut off  citizens' access to government after another.

As The Frontiersman pointed out recently, The "Borough Mayor Candidates {Are] Miles Apart."

They are.

Larry DeVilbiss wanted to build a giant, coal-fired power plant right on the southeastern edge of Palmer.  Its belching smoke would have been the first thing people would see approaching the Mat-Su Valley from Eklutna and the Knik River bridges, coming into one of the most beautiful vistas in the world.  Talk about lack of vision.

That project was thwarted by common sense.  It didn't stop Larry, though.  Now he's pushing for a huge coal mine on the other side of Palmer.  As a more sensible mayor wrote about this loony project in The Frontiersman, the mine's ways to transport the coal through the core of the Valley's residential areas borders on insanity.



Come meet the sane candidate for Borough Mayor at our place Saturday

3:00 to 5:00 pm:

7127 Ea. Shorewood Drive
Wasilla, AK  99654

call for directions, if you need them:  746-0994

Al Jazeera's Roundtable on Benghazi: The political fallout of the Libya attack

Come Get CAGE'd This Afternoon at the UAA Bookstore

Ultimate Cluelessness: Romney Smiling As He Exits Stage, After Killing His Political Aspirations

This photo was taken by AP photographer Charles Dharapak, as Romney left the podium, upon conclusion of his widely criticized remarks on the Embassy murders in Libya.

He's smiling.  Why?

It strikes me as creepy.

I predict this guy will be down eight to ten points when the first post-stupid remarks polls come out.  There's probably no way for him to dig himself back out of the hole he has dug with the Europe-Israel tour, the pathetic GOP convention, and now - this.

My Trombone Sonata for September 11th, 2001

Firefighters killed on September 11, 2001

Here are the program notes I wrote to describe the work, shortly after I had finished it in October, 2001:

Philip Munger
Sonata for Trombone & Piano, Opus 67

This three-movement work was written between mid-September and early October of 2001.  My immediate responses to the awful impressions of September 11 and the following week were of despair.  I had an overwhelming feeling that the world had changed irrevocably - not so much for me, as for my children.  The sadness I felt and continue to feel for innocent people drawn into an immense web of hatred came out in this work, which I wrote carefully, but fairly quickly.

1.  Red Recitative:    The recurring images of collapsing buildings, smoke, injured and maimed emergency workers spurred this piece.

2.  White/Black March:    The images and statements of our National Security and National Defense apparatchiks strutting around in late September, seemed to be in stark contrast to the obviousness of their failure to rationally view our world.  This march questions the sincerity of visible American leaders during that time.

The theme of the march’s trio is an inversion of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”

3.  Blue Chorale:    The chorale’s theme is taken from J. S. Bach’s “The Passion According to St. John.”  “Er nahm alles wohl in Acht,” No. 56, reads:

    He of ev’rything took heed In his hour of dying,
    Caring for his mother’s need, On friends relying,
    O Man, lead a righteous life, Love God and thy neighbor,
    Death will bring an end to strife, Rest from care and labor.

The performance in the recording was done by Greg Powers on trombone and Kevin Aanerud on piano, at a live performance at the Jack Straw Studios in Seattle, Washington:

Out on the Lake

Judy and I took the dog out in the canoe onto Neklason Lake yesterday evening for the late evening sunset.  The fall colors are just starting to kick into gear.

The grebe family's youngsters are still rather small, but beginning their flight training.  For the first time since their five cygnets were born, Judy and I were able to come very close to the Trumpeter swan family.  This is the first year since we moved to the lake in 1995, that a Trumpeter swan couple has raised their brood in the large marsh at the lake's western side.

The cygnets have grown quite large in the few months they have been alive.  Fortunately, Strider, our dog, didn't do anything to spook the birds, so we got close.

Colorado Public Television Presents 9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out

It is almost stunning that the powers that be allowed both Colorado Public Television and National PBS to air this documentary this summer.

It is the most measured, credible documentary I've yet seen.

During the last half hour of the program, psychologists look at why we cannot face the most likely truth of 9-11 - that it was an inside job.   By concentrating on the physics of the destruction of Building Seven, and on the physical evidence of nano explosives in debris, that is the only conclusion one can rationally come to. The part of the documentary that is aired mentions the limited possibilities for a source of such sophisticated explosives, but fails to go further into that. Unfortunately, the Colorado PBS system has taken down direct embedding of their long, 90-minute program that was unique. Here's a link to it. They used the program as a fundraiser, which is as interesting as any other aspect of this.

Caging John Cage - Thursday Afternoon at the UAA Bookstore