Ok – so not to be outdone by Exxon that hired Bush advisor Philip Cooney, the former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Shell has now appointed Gale Norton, a former interior secretary for the Bush administration, as a senior legal advisor.
Gale Norton supports opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other sensitive environmental landscapes for oil production. She will be based primarily in Colorado, where she was once state attorney general, working on “unconventional” resources, meaning heavily polluting shale.
Shell also recently appointed another perceived enemy of the green lobby, Cam Toohey, to work in Alaska. Toohey used to work for Ms Norton in the interior department having moved from a the head of Arctic Power, the lobby group that advocates opening up oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Shell has also taken on Elizabeth Stolpe, a Bush environment adviser and former oil industry lobbyist.
These could be construed as slightly strange appointments for a company trying to be seen as green…