Alaskan Congressman Don Young released the following statement today in response to The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issuing conditional approval of Shell’s revised Exploration Plan to drill leases in the Chukchi Sea Planning Area in 2012:
“While today’s news that BOEM has issued conditional approval for Shell’s Chukchi leases might seem welcoming at first glance, the devil is in the details. What Alaskans and the companies who have invested billions of dollars are looking for is certainty and progress, and unfortunately this ‘conditional’ approval won’t bring much of either. The fact of the matter is that Alaskans know how to do this in a safe and responsible way, and to ignore the progress that has been made to increase safety and technology is short-sighted.
"Going forward, it’s my hope that a workable solution can be reached, which will result in activity in the Chukchi Sea that puts Alaskans to work providing energy to America.”
