USA: Reaction to Beaufort Sea Exploration

Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling reacted to the recent approval by the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) in an Op-Ed in The New York Times on August 17 saying, “The administration should put on the brakes. This is a reckless gamble we cannot afford. We can’t prevent an Arctic blowout any more than we can avert disaster in the Gulf of Mexico or the North Sea. We don’t have the infrastructure, the knowledge or the experience to cope with one if it occurs.”