Signs of movement for Shell air permits?

According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, Regina McCarthy, assistant administrator for air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency, has told a Congressional committee that EPA is close to completing a revised air quality permit for Shell’s planned Arctic outer continental shelf exploration drilling. On May 13 McCarthy told a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that EPA and Shell are working to develop a permit that would withstand scrutiny from the Environmental Appeals Board, the Houston Chronicle reported. The appeals board has remanded Shell’s Beaufort and Chukchi Sea air quality permits to EPA for rework following an appeal to the board against issuance of the permits.

Obtaining the required air quality permits has presented a major hurdle in Shell’s plans for Alaska Arctic drilling. In February the company announced the postponement of its plans to drill in the Beaufort Sea in 2011, following the EAB remand of the company’s Beaufort Sea air permit.

In the May 13 hearing McCarthy said that the variety of drilling equipment and support vessels needed for Arctic drilling, along with an Arctic climate that is very different from the Gulf of Mexico where offshore air quality permits have been issued in the past, make the permitting of Arctic drilling challenging.

—Alan Bailey