Shell Oil's proposal to drill three exploratory wells in the
Beaufort Sea off Alaska's North Slope received a conditional go-
ahead last week from the Obama administration even though the
Interior Department has not yet approved the company's plan for
responding to a catastrophic oil spill. That plan fails to
adequately address many of the harsh realities of drilling in
Arctic seas. It's too early for any approval, conditional or
otherwise. Exploratory offshore drilling in the Arctic doesn't
present the same potential for danger as, say, BP's offshore rig
in the Gulf of Mexico. The hazards of drilling in the Arctic are
quite different and in ways worse. Shell's wells would be just
160 feet underwater, as opposed to the 5,000-foot depth of BP's
Deepwater Horizon well, source of the largest offshore oil spill
in U.S. history. That, at least theoretically, would make the
Arctic wells easier to cap. But there are other important
differences. BP's rig was located in generally calm waters that
happen to contain oil-