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February 2011

Vol. 16, No. 9 Week of February 27, 2011

Clipping the EAB wings

Frustrated at the remand by the Environmental Appeals Board of Shell’s air quality permits for planned drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has introduced a bill amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives to limit the EAB’s ability to do something similar in the future. The amendment, to the House bill for 2011 appropriations for federal agencies, would curtail funding for EAB review of Environmental Protection Agency permits for activities on the Arctic outer continental shelf — the House of Representatives has passed the amendment by a vote of 243 to 185, according to a release from Young’s press office.

“This amendment does not circumvent the EPA’s authority. Instead it continues to give permitting decisions to the professionals in the regional offices. What this amendment will do is remove the ability for lawyers to overrule EPA permit writers,” Young told House members. “Over $4 billion have been invested in trying to drill exploratory wells, and to date not a single well has been drilled because of one EPA air permit.”

The amendment prohibits the EAB from using any funds from the 2011 appropriations to “consider, review, reject, remand or otherwise invalidate any permit issued for outer continental shelf (emissions) sources located offshore the states along the Arctic coast.”

—Alan Bailey






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