The oil giant Shell has taken preemptive steps to protect its offshore drilling plans in the Arctic Ocean by filing a lawsuit against environmental opponents in an apparent attempt to beat them to court. This week, Shell sued more than a dozen environmental groups, seeking a court ruling affirming the federal government’s prior approval of Shell’s oil spill response plan that the groups are expected to challenge. In a separate case, Shell has won a restraining order barring activists from the environmental group Greenpeace from interfering with Shell’s drilling rigs. Last week, activists boarded a rig in New Zealand that is scheduled to begin operations in the Arctic this summer. They were arrested after spending four days on the rig. The group included the actor Lucy Lawless, best known for her role as “Xena: Warrior Princess.”

Lucy Lawless: “Seven of us went up the rig, but 133,000 people came down with us in solidarity that have been writing letters. And we know that new heroes are going to spring up in our fervent mission to make sure that the oil industry becomes an energy industry that is renewable and clean.”