Press release – 21 December, 2016Sydney, 22 December: Greenpeace has called on Malcolm Turnbull to show leadership and stop Great Australian Bight oil drilling following BP’s final withdrawal of its bid and US and Canadian decisions yesterday to end Arctic oil drilling.BP’s announcement on 21 December that it had withdrawn its environment plan came the same day that US and Canadian leaders jointly banned Arctic oil drilling.
“Yesterday’s historic decisions in Washington and Ottawa to put communities before big oil show a degree of leadership that it is sorely lacking in Canberra. Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull leads a government of dinosaurs clinging to a fossil fuel era whose time has past,” said Greenpeace Campaigner Nathaniel Pelle.
”This is an opportunity for Mr Turnbull to emulate Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau’s forward-thinking stand. But despite BP’s exit, the threat to the Bight remains. Australia’s fossil fuel obsessed politicians continue the fool’s game of promoting drilling in unexplored areas like the Bight. BP is actively trying to sell its title to other oil companies. Chevron remains committed to exploration drilling as early as next summer.
“The decision to permanently protect the majority of US and indefinitely protect all Canadian Arctic waters will leave an important legacy. It’s a signal that oil exploration in our wilderness areas has no future. So Malcolm Turnbull should relieve remaining Bight oil title-holders of their work commitments, and end the looming threat of oil spills for Indigenous peoples, fishers and oyster growers from Port Lincoln to Kangaroo Island.”