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 y almost any measure, Shell is a global giant. The oil industry juggernaut operates in more than 90 countries and produces 3.3 million barrels of gas and oil every day. Last year in the third quarter alone, the company reported net income of almost $7 billion. Yet for all its money and influence, Shell has for years been greedily eyeing one environ-mental jewel that -- thanks in no small part to NRDC and our conservation allies -- has remained off-limits to the company's drill rigs: the wildlife-filled seas off the northern coast of Alaska, including the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Despite the enormous ecological risks posed by offshore drilling in extreme Arctic conditions, Shell has been relentless in campaigning for federal approval to drill in the two Polar Bear Seas: the Chukchi and the Beaufort. The health of both seas is critical to the survival of America's threatened population of polar bears, which is already declining in the face of climate change. These frigid waters are home to an impressive array of other species as well, from gray whales, beluga whales and endangered bowhead whales to Pacific walrus, ringed seals and scores of fish such as cod, char and salmon. Yet even as Shell has utterly failed to demonstrate how it would cope with a catastrophic oil spill on par with BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Obama Administration has granted Shell tentative approval to begin drilling in the Beaufort Sea as early as this summer -- including off the coast of the Arctic Refuge, the main onshore birthing ground for polar bears in the United States. The adminstration also appears poised to grant similar approval for drilling in the Chukchi Sea. NRDC and Earthjustice are challenging the administration's actions in federal court.
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