Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar PDF
Preview Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar
Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar Grant Jordan Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar This page intentionally left blank Shell, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar Grant Jordan Professor of Po/itics Ullivcrsity o(A/Jmlem * © Grant Jordan 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-74546-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue. New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-41047-7 ISBN 978-1-4039-0529-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403905291 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jordan, A. G. Shell, Greenpeace, and the Brent Spar / Grant Jordan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Oil storage tanks-Decommissioning-North Sea Region. 2. Oil storage tanks-Environmental aspects-North Sea Region. 3. Environmental policy-Decision making. 4. Shell Oil Company -Decision making. 5. Greenpeace Environmental Trust. 6. Brent Spar (Oil storage tank) I. Titte. TN871.4 .J67 2001 363.738'2'0916336-dc21 2001035435 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 Contents List of tab/es andf igures VI Preface Vll 1. Introduction: the Brent Spar Background 1 2. Three Styles ofDecision-making 26 3. De-commissioning Decisions: Unsuccessful Consultation? 75 4. The Battle to Define the Problem 106 5. Direct Action and Indirect Consequences 145 6. Science and Decision-making 191 7. The Spar and OSP AR: Linking the Decisions 230 8. General Conclusions 276 9. The Implications for Democracy: Single Issue Politics versus Corporate Power 348 Bibliography 375 Index 380 v Tables 5.1 Press coverage in Britain 161 5.2 Brent Spar Protest (Germany) 171 8.1 Brent Spar: What Public Concern? 284 8.2 Press interest in Britain 286 9.1 Approval oftype ofpolitical protest 355 9.2 Effectiveness of communication 359 9.3 Prestige (ofmajor institutions) with the public 360 Figures 5.1 Brent Spar Media Response (Germany) 176 5.2 TV attention (Germany) 177 vi Preface This project attracted me as it reeorded events that exhibited a variety of features of the poliey process that 1 had previously addressed. It allowed me the indulgenee of revisiting an interest in eonsultation (still a neglected topie). The exereise yielded a spectaeularly elose version of a poliey eommunity for whieh 1 was happy to adopt Baumgartner and Iones' term 'poliey monopoly'. The case also indieated that we should not simply assume that the mobilisation of a wide range of eompeting groups means there is an issue network: the issue is not how many groups are making noise, but how many are influeneing the deeision. In the Brent Spar example the British protest simply produeed a macho determination at Governmentallevel not to change poliey. The case allowed me to allude to the decline of parties in modern poliey making and the importanee of sectoral poliey making. It was an example where many ob servers seemed eontent that this was a ease, for good or ill, of interest group power. My argument is that an explanation simply resting on the interest group dimension is too bald. The research allowed me to trawl the US literature on poliey making for material for a theoretical infusion to rather malnourished UK aeeounts of group activity This project also led me to some new terrain and, as noted above, espeeially let me benefit enormously from the work of Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Iones who often seem to have captured with eleganee in 1993 poorly pereeived observations and tentative thoughts that pretended to originality in 200l. 1 also (belatedly) benefited through engagement with the social eonstruction literature: this was through the academie influence of Sara Davidson. Those who note that some participants active in the events were connected with Aberdeen University, as I am myself, may be led to think this account is partial simply on that basis. That would ignore the unfortunate reality of departmental walls and limited time. I know colleagues here eould have improved this. Save for the encouragement I got from Professor Graeme Simpson and Peter Meenan, they did not get the opportunity. vii Thanks to those in Greenpeace, Marine Laboratory, DTI Oil and Gas Directorate, UKOOA, Shell (and especially Graham Precious ofthe Offshore Decommissioning Project) who responded to requests for assistance and the opportunity to correct any misperceptions on my part. To those who didn't - too late. Tony Rice and Paula Owen have produced a book on Decommissioning the Brent Spar and Chris Rose has produced The Turning 0/ the Spar. I have received generous help from them and do not see this volume as direct competition to their very different accounts. In terms of the production of the book lanet Michaelsen was super cheerful and super efficient. Lesley Steward greatly improved the appearance of the text and remaining flaws are decidedly mine. Linda Stevenson helped remedy my weaknesses in footnoting, haphazard cutting and pasting, and all the other features of a working style that are so useful in showing post graduates faults to avoid. In the last push to publication she made the difference. Thanks to all the above, but above all to a retired oil man. I hope I have 'read' the Brent Spar events more accurately than I initially summed up Rod Smith. His helpfulness is unfailing; and his commitment is to nothing and no one other than the truth. viii 1. Introduction: the Brent Spar Background This book may seem to some to be a large undertaking over a minor oil industry decision about the disposal of a redundant facility, but the significance of the events described in this book is indicated by the following quotations - selected from a lengthy list of similar sentiments: Brent Spar will enter history as the symbol of our failure to establish our position and connect in a meaningful way with a wider audience (Heinz Rothermund,l Managing Director, Shell Expro, Society of Petroleum Engineers Conference, 15 April 1997). When the definitive history of environmentalism is written in the next century, the moment when a group of activists took over a pensioned-off oil platform in the North Sea may weIl merit a chapter all to itself The story of the Brent Spar, its occupation by Greenpeace, its re-taking by Shell, the eventual abandonment of plans to dump it deep in the Atlantic (to the fury of the Government and the disbelief of many scientists and pundits) has already entered contemporary lore ... most people agree that, after the Brent Spar, nothing will quite be the same again. Ostensibly, Brent Spar was about the disposal of a huge amount of mbbish ... But it was also a modem morality tale played out on our television screens and in the pages of our newspapers (Nicholson-Lord, 1997). We are going to change. We have learned that for certain decisions, your [public] agreement is just as irnportant as the opinion of experts or the approval of the authorities ... it is not enough for adecision to conform to laws and international mIes ... Acceptance by society is needed too (Shell Germany, apology to customers, 27 lune 1995).
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