Spending bill curbs EPA Alaskan air-quality role

The new catch-all fiscal 2012 spending bill that House leaders unveiled early Thursday would get the Environmental Protection Agency out of the air pollution permitting business for offshore drilling projects in Arctic waters off Alaska’s northern coast.

The provision, which hands authority to the Interior Department, follows GOP and oil industry complaints that EPA has dragged its feet on permits for Shell Oil’s pending plans to look for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Shell has begun receiving EPA air permits for its planned projects, although it also needs various other federal approvals such as Interior Department drilling permits.

The bill does not invalidate any pending or existing air quality permits.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee panel that crafts EPA and Interior spending bills, called the language a vital step to spur drilling in Arctic waters.

“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,” said Murkowski, who is also the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.