One of the big questions is what if something happens up there? We know what happened in the Gulf of Mexico with that oil spill and how hard it was to contain that even with no ice there. The breakdown of the oil particles happened better because of the temperature of the water. If you have a major spill up there—we're looking down the road, you can see more tankers coming through here, maybe loading up in Alaska and going to Europe or whatever with Chinese vessels, who knows— when those spills happen, does it cost twice as much? Is the challenge twice as hard as you would have in southern climates?
On February 28th, 2013. See this statement in context.