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A level playing field Language in bill would move Arctic OCS air permitting from EPA to Interior Dept. Alan Bailey Petroleum News
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, announced Dec. 15 that after months of negotiations there is language in the 2012 Department of the Interior spending bill to return authority over Arctic outer continental shelf industrial air emissions from the Environmental Protection Agency to Interior.
“This language is one of the most important steps Congress can take to ensure that responsible development is allowed to go forward in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas,” Murkowski said. “Transferring air quality authority from the EPA to Interior will place Alaska’s Arctic leases on a level playing field with the Gulf of Mexico and provide a level of predictability, without compromising environmental protections, for those companies willing to invest in the production of America’s energy.”
Moved in 1990 The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act originally required Interior to administer outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing in compliance with the U.S. Clean Air Act. However, a 1990 amendment to the Clean Air Act gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority over air quality regulation in all areas of the outer continental shelf except the central and western Gulf of Mexico. And Interior has successfully been issuing air quality permits for oil and gas activities in the Gulf.
Meantime EPA did not have to deal with air permitting for OCS oil drilling until Shell developed plans for drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas following the company’s return to Alaska Arctic OCS exploration in 2005. With no previous experience in permitting this type of activity and faced with a barrage of appeals against Shell’s plans, EPA has struggled for several years to issue a permit sufficiently robust to withstand appeal. And Shell still does not have a permit that has cleared the hurdle of the appeals process.
Working for months Murkowski’s office said that the senator has been working for months to resolve systemic problems with the EPA’s permitting process after watching Shell wait more than five years in a still-unsuccessful bid to obtain valid operating permits. In the Gulf of Mexico Interior has, on average, processed air quality permits within months — the language written by Murkowski in the spending bill will provide regulatory parity for the Beaufort and Chukchi seas with the Gulf of Mexico, Murkowski’s office said.
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, praised Murkowski for her leadership and hard work in managing to place the provision in the spending bill.
“This is game changer for development in the Arctic,” Young said. “After working with my colleagues for quite some time to resolve this, I am pleased that the conferees included language which will provide regulatory certainty to those companies that hold leases in the Arctic while also establishing consistency with other oil producing regions.”
Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, also praised the language in the bill, saying that he had been lobbying for several months for the change.
“This is an issue of fairness and is long-overdue,” Begich said. “Companies with projects in the Arctic are at a competitive disadvantage under the EPA. It’s time to move all air permitting under the Interior Department.”
However, the bill containing the air quality permitting language has yet to be passed into law.
“Our work is not complete; it’s crucially important that Congress act swiftly and pass this bill so that the president can sign it into law,” Young said.
Shell: clear process “We are always interested in a clear and efficient permitting process no matter where we work, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith told Petroleum News in a Dec. 15 email. “If, in the future, Arctic OCS air permitting is governed by another agency, we will work with them to meet or exceed the standards in place. We have worked closely with EPA Region 10 to put together what we believe are very solid air permits. We appreciate that collaboration and believe that work will be validated once the appeals process runs its course.”
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