Another Review of "The Eskimo and the Oil Man"

Awhile back I discussed, positively, Bob Reiss's book The Eskimo and the Oil Man. Chris Winter, a reader here, wrote his own review recently, and liked it as much:

"I recommend The Eskimo and the Oil Man with full marks and consider it a keeper. That said, however, I feel the author focuses too narrowly on Shell's representative Pete Slaiby. I have no doubt Slaiby is a good man, but his opinion on the concern for safety of the oil industry in general is suspect at best."

He also writes, "I'll simply point out that, in the Arctic, Shell has performed poorly over the past two summers. It is not ready to begin drilling." Not only that, but Shell is having lots of problems with an towed drilling platform that has run aground south of Alaska. (Video here.) That's probably undoing much of the good word Slaiby has been working to gain in the the last several years. The platform is south of Alaska, but you have to wonder how, if they can't control a smaller platform there, they could handle a larger problem much further north in (now) total darkness.

Shell will probably eventually get its way on being allowed to drill in the Arctic, if it wants to -- it's hard to see the U.S. and Alaskan governments simply saying "no" -- unless they quit first because of the cost. So far they've spent about $4.5 billion.

Chris also has a review of Michael Specter's Denialism, which I mentioned earlier and am still working through.