U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled Thursday in Anchorage that Greenpeace is in civil contempt because of protesters dangling off a bridge in Portland, whom she said impeded the Shell vessel.
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The Beaufort Sea could hold 1.36 billion barrels of oil.
“Indeed, it is a major milestone”, spokesperson Curtis Smith told msnbc Friday.
A security patrol keeps an eye on kayakers that are part of an effort to block the Royal Dutch Shell PLC icebreaker Fennica from leaving for Alaska in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 30, 2015.
Police initially detained protesters but by late Thursday night said they only made one arrest – 24-year-old Robert Jonah Majure, who police say locked himself to a railroad bridge and is accused of first-degree criminal trespass.
For about six hours, according to local outlets, there was relative quiet.
Police boats and other authorities circled kayakers and forced the danglers down into the water.
Authorities are investigating a series of accidents that claimed the lives of two people in Plantation, early Thursday morning. The Noble Discoverer was hit with eight felony counts after a Coast Guard inspection, and paid $12.2 million in fines.
“Greenpeace prioritizes safety above all else and rappelling from a bridge is a walk in the park compared to the risks that we’ll face if we continue the climate change trajectory we’re on now”. Their initial encounters with law enforcement were relatively calm.
The vessel managed to pass under the bridge around 6:00 p.m. Thursday while nine activists holding flags still dangled from the structure.
The order was based on an earlier ruling in May, spurred by similarly intense confrontations with Shell’s rigs in Seattle.
Local, state and federal agencies combined in the operation to bring protesters down safely from their perches on ropes under the bridge.
By around 5 p.m. Thursday, the Fennica launched again. The activists very well knew that they ultimately would not prevent the ship from passing. Shell claimed Greenpeace clearly violated the court’s injunction.
There has since been a campaign by Greenpeace called “Shell No”, which has attracted numerous celebrity supporters, including Pierce Brosnan, Naomi Campbell and Ozzy Osborne. Thousands of layoffs are planned, among other adjustments, adding urgency to the oil giant’s Arctic push.
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Last week, the Obama administration gave Shell final permission to drill in the Chukchi Sea but said the company could drill only top holes – not drill into oil-bearing zones – until the capping stack is in position to respond to a potential spill within 24 hours. The company has all the permits it needs to begin drilling. Shell planned to introduce the nation’s first “environmentally enhanced” gasoline*, SU2000E, and we were retained to mount the presser and feed the footage to the dozen cities in which would be available. Before then it hopes to prepare a wellhead for production as soon as next summer. The icebreaker, however, retreated just after 7:30 a.m., about a quarter-mile from the bridge, prompting cheers from environmental activists gathered below on a boardwalk.
