Greenpeace In Legal Battle With U.K. Over Oil Exploration
Environmentalist group Greenpeace reportedly took the UK government to court over what it sees as Britain's failure to protect coral beds, whales, dolphins and other marine life from the effects of oil and gas exploration. Greenpeace officials said the government has failed to apply the European Union Habitats Directive to oil and gas exploration in the relatively deep waters of the Atlantic Frontier, where oil companies believe large new oil reserves are waiting to be tapped. Oil companies Texaco, Esso UK, Marathon Oil UK, Mobil North Sea, Enterprise Oil, Conoco Ltd., Statoil, Philips Petroleum UK, Elf Exploration And British Gas Exploration and Production are opposing Greenpeace's moves.
Greenpeace In Legal Battle With U.K. Over Oil Exploration
Environmentalist group Greenpeace took the U.K. government to court over what it sees as Britain's failure to protect coral beds, whales, dolphins and other marine life from the effects of oil and gas exploration. Nigel Plemming QC, representing Greenpeace, told London's High Court that the government had failed to apply the European Union Habitats Directive to oil and gas exploration in the relatively deep waters of the Atlantic Frontier, where oil companies believe large new oil reserves are waiting to be tapped. He said that the Department of Trade and Industry is under a legal duty to apply the EU Directive even though the Atlantic Frontier, on the edge of U.K.'s Continental Shelf, lay beyond British territorial waters.
