By Barry Healy
Greenpeace has stepped up its international campaign on global warming by targeting attempts to drill for oil on the Atlantic frontier (the Arctic fringe of the Atlantic Ocean). As a result, it has been subjected to extraordinary legal attacks by oil companies and authorities in both Britain and the US.
The oil giant BP has taken a $31.4 million damages claim to Scottish courts and frozen all Greenpeace bank accounts. Alaskan authorities, in conjunction with the ARCO energy company, have slapped Greenpeace with a restraining order.
In addition, the BP suit has frozen the accounts of leading Greenpeace activists Chris Rose, Sarah Burton, Liz Pratt and Jon Castle. BPs tactics are similar to those used against the British miners during their 1984 struggle with the Thatcher government.
Greenpeace has been opposing oil exploration in the Atlantic frontier as part of its campaign to force governments to put a ceiling on the use of fossil fuels and to stop new oil exploration. The organisation argues that the world cannot afford to burn even a quarter of existing fuel reserves without causing irreparable climate change.
The legal attacks followed Greenpeace's peaceful direct actions against the positioning of a huge drilling platform, the Steena Dee, at the Foinaven site off north-west Scotland. Seven activists boarded the Steena Dee and locked themselves onto the support legs and anchor chain, carrying a banner reading "No New Oil".
The Steena Dee, a large mobile platform, was en route from Norway to "drilling centre two" in the Foinaven site. It was due to hook up oil-carrying pipes to the manifold, which had previously been pulled up and repaired following problems with the technology. The Petrojarl Foinaven, a giant oil drilling tanker, was due to link up with the Steena Dee and act as an oil reservoir but was delayed by Greenpeace swimmers in its path.
Chris Rose, executive director of Greenpeace, said, "Already a year behind schedule and plagued with technical problems, Foinaven is a disaster. Rather than continue to pour millions into it, BP should put the Foinaven into mothballs and invest the money in its solar power arm instead."
Greenpeace says a report coordinated by BP Solar details how a solar "super-factory" could be built for about half the cost of the oil company's current investment in the Foinaven field.
Petrojarl Foinaven (known as an FPSO) is the first of the Atlantic frontier drilling operations due to produce oil. It is seen by oil companies the world over as a pilot project. If successful, the project will signal a huge increase in the number of FPSOs used to drill the previously untapped deep oceans of the world.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace activists in the US served a "citizens' arrest" notice on ARCO to try to halt the towing of its giant drill platform to the waters of Camden Bay, just offshore from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Greenpeace took this action after its August 13 protest against the drill rig resulted in ARCO and the state of Alaska joining forces to secure a temporary restraining order that limits the group's right to free speech and non-violent protest.
Greenpeace representatives say ARCO's activities are in violation of six federal laws since it lacks the permits required to move its drill rig from the waters outside Prudhoe Bay 121 kilometres east to Camden Bay.
Camden Bay is an important feeding area for endangered bowhead whales and critical habitat for such species as polar bear, seals, fish and migratory waterfowl. The highest density of polar bear dens in the Alaskan Arctic occurs along the coastline of Camden Bay.
"Agencies of the federal government charged with upholding the law are instead aiding and abetting the destruction of ocean life and the earth's climate", said Pam Miller, Greenpeace Alaska biologist.
"Apparently requirements to obtain federal permits can be waived if they stand in the way of oil industry interests or time lines. In Alaska today the laws of the land are being enforced with a great deal of selective bias."