The Obama administration gave final approval on Monday to Shell to resume exploratory drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean for the first time since 2012. Environmentalists are worried that this decision might upset the Arctic ecosystem and increase greenhouse gas production. They are also confused by the president's choice, since he has made such an effort to leave the White House with a legacy of climate change progress.
Jennifer Dlouhy, an energy reporter at the Houston Chronicle, talked with HuffPost Live on Thursday to discuss the tricky position Obama was in when he allowed this possibly harmful drilling to continue in the Arctic Ocean.
"I think it's a mix of policy," Dlouhy told Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani. "On the one hand, he wants to make oil and gas extraction cleaner. He wants to curb the the greenhouse gas emissions related to the production and transmission of natural gas. But he recognizes that we are kind of bound to this fossil fuel at least for a few more decades, even if we move swiftly to alternatives and renewable power."
Watch Dlouhy discuss the reasoning behind Obama's decision in the video above, and click here for the full segment on the implications of allowing Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean.
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