Pearce assesses Alaska impacts of OCS regs
At the Law Seminars International Energy in Alaska conference on Dec. 6 Drue Pearce, senior policy advisor with law firm Crowell and Moring, reviewed the possible impacts in Alaska of changes in outer continental shelf regulation by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. As a consequence of new Alaska regulations and a heightened safety awareness following the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, Alaska is in many ways already up to speed in the rigor with which safety and environmental protection is approached, Pearce said. She cited as examples the comprehensive oil discharge prevention and contingency plans used for Alaska offshore drilling, both for wells that have been drilled on the outer continental shelf in the past and for OCS wells that Shell currently plans to drill.
“Alaska law already requires extremely detailed oil discharge and contingency plans, and we in Alaska are frankly already ahead of the game in terms of all these response requirements,” Pearce said.
Whereas a typical Gulf of Mexico contingency plan used to amount to just 50 pages, Shell’s plan for its Beaufort Sea drilling consists of a 384-page document, plus some ancillary plans, she said.
On the other hand, although procedures under the National Environmental Policy Act have not really changed following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, companies can expect a need for much more detailed NEPA-related paperwork, Pearce said. And the listing under the Endangered Species Act of animals such as the polar bear, impacted by receding Arctic sea ice, will trigger new requirements for ESA consultations in association with OCS permitting — the impact of those consultations on offshore activities remains something of an unknown.
—Alan Bailey
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