The Honorable EPA Owes Shell Oil Billions

According to an article by Dan Springer posted on Fox News website the EPA has effectively shut down Shell Oil from drilling this summer off the coast of Alaska. Never mind that Shell has invested “five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas”; add to that, “The leases alone cost $2.2 billion”.


If our government had the gumption to lease for the purpose of drilling oil and then cancels permission to drill it would make the government “Indian-Givers”, wouldn’t it; or is that term politically incorrect? Maybe the fine print on the lease specifically prohibited Shell Oil from drilling and stated the lease was to be used strictly for non invasive purposes; say whale watching or Polar Bear repopulation efforts, and you’d believe that, right?


“The Environmental Appeals Board has four members: Edward Reich, Charles Sheehan, Kathie Stein and Anna Wolgast. All are registered Democrats and Kathie Stein was an activist attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund. Members are appointed by the EPA administrator.”


I’m sure the make up of the EPA board had nothing to do with Shell Oil being denied permission to drill. We’ve already past the Ides of March; but can’t you hear Marc Antony, praising the EPA’s board members? .


Friends, Alaskans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Shell Oil, not to praise it;
The evil big oil does lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Shell ... The noble EPA
Hath told you Shell was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Shell answered it ...




Here, under leave of the EPA and the rest,
(For the EPA are honorable men;
So are they all; honorable men)
Come I to speak at Shell’s funeral ...
Shell was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But the EPA says they were ambitious;
And the EPA are all honorable men….




I speak not to disprove what the EPA has spoken,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love Shell once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn them now?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin with Shell Oil,
And I must pause till it come back to me.




Shakespeare was able to turn the word honorable around to mean dishonorable; hope he forgives my abuse of his masterfully written speech. I couldn’t resist; my apologies to one and all for taking liberties with classic literature. (Attention Mrs. Spain and Mrs. Streusand; high school English teachers who thought I never listened.)


We promised them an opportunity to drill for oil, took their money and pulled the rug out from under them; isn’t that fraud by definition? I’d say the EPA and the U.S. government owes Shell Oil at least 6 billion dollars, plus interest; and we can be assured that debt will be paid as we’re represented by honorable men, are we not?


It says a lot about the validity of our word as a nation, “if our lips are moving, we’re lying”. China had better get used to the idea of holding an empty sack if they plan to collect any debts from this bunch of “honorable men” who represent our country.


This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal , a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.