Hanlon Announces Plan to Open Occom Pond To Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling

HANOVER – Last month, President Hanlon announced that he would begin opening Occom Pond to offshore oil and gas drilling. This move gives energy companies the ability to extract theselucrative natural resources from Dartmouth’s pristine pond, less than a mere half mile from the Choates cluster of student dorms. This proposal lifts a previous prohibition on offshore drilling imposed by President Kim.

Students and environmental activists are concerned about the new move. “The school said to ignore any sort of discharge from the drilling, so I thought it was fine, said Sophie Hearst ’18. “But yesterday, I was taking a shower and some brown sludge started coming out of the faucet, so…that’s a problem.” Other students have noticed dangerous issues stemming from this new development. “I saw fire trucks rushing down Wheelock Street and assumed that it was Morton again, but later someone told me that it was an oil rig fire,” said Henry Cain ’20. “How is this fucking legal?” Additionally, advocacy groups are concerned that the new development has had an uneven impact on students. Residents of the upscale McLaughlin cluster have been spared the smells, sights, and tastes of rubber and oil that residents of the Choates clus

ter have suffered. Students interested in this problem are encouraged to take ENVS 62, Environmental (In)Justice of Dartmouth’s Oil Drilling, which is set to conduct field research interviewing students who were forced from their homes by toxic substances.

After the Dartmouth sustainability office filed a complaint on behalf of students whose belongings were destroyed by oil leakage, President Hanlon issued a statement, alleging that his plan will “repeal Kim-era regulations that hurt business and stifle economic growth” and that any opponents can “go fuck themselves.”