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October 20, 2009

Shell Given OK to Drill Oil Exploration Wells Near Arctic
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The Interior Department has given Shell the OK to drill oil exploration
wells in two areas of the Beaufort Sea near the Arctic. This could lead
to the first drilling in more than a decade in this area off the north
coast of Alaska. Chuck Clusen of the Natural Resources Defense Council
criticized the decision. Clusen said a drilling blowout could leave oil
in the waters off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for
decades, killing whales, seals, fish and birds and turning irreplaceable
spawning and feeding grounds into an ecological wasteland.



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