The big oil rig expected to arrive in Seattle today is the first and the largest of 25 vessels coming through the Northwest as part of Shell’s planned Alaska North Slope exploration. The Seattle Times has the details, including the legal fight and disagreements between the Port of Seattle and the City of Seattle.
Times columnist Danny Westneat, with his usual splash of common sense, smirks at the latecomer politicians who now want to join the protests. “For going on 40 years,” Westneat writes, “Arctic crude has literally fueled the prosperous growth in this region. If Arctic oil is now the moral equivalent of a drug, and Alaska or the oil companies are its pushers, then we’re the prime junkie.”