US senators from oil-producing states have introduced a bill that would speed Environmental Protection Agency review of air permits needed for offshore drilling.
The Offshore Energy and Jobs Permitting Act introduced Thursday by Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican-Alaska, would give the EPA six months to act on the applications. Like a companion bill in the House of Representatives, the measure responds to Shell's years-long wait for air permits to start exploratory drilling in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
"We have companies that have spent more than five years and billions of dollars attempting to conduct offshore exploration and production in Alaska, but have been unable to secure the necessary permits from EPA," Murkowski said in a statement Friday. "It's clear that this process is not just overly costly and time-consuming, but simply does not work."
A companion measure (H.R. 2021) that cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee two weeks ago is scheduled for a full House vote Wednesday, said Rachel Boxer, a spokeswoman for Representative Cory Gardner, Republican-Colorado, who introduced it.
Both bills call for measuring air pollution onshore instead of at sea, eliminating the Environmental Appeals Board's authority to review EPA rulings, and regulating platforms and drill ships as stationary sources under the Clean Air Act only after they are actively involved in drilling.
Co-sponsors of the Senate bill include Republicans James Inhofe of Oklahoma, John Barrasso of Wyoming, John Hoeven of North Dakota, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Democrats Mark Begich of Alaska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
