The attempted appeal by environmental groups against the EPA, would stop or delay the issuing of a clean air permit. It is the second try by environmentalist to stop exploration in the Alaskan Arctic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) by blocking the federal permitting process. The first appeal against the EPA in December 2010 succeeded and the Environmental Appeals Board ruled the EPA had not demanded sufficient study of onshore impact of exhaust from drilling operations offshore.  In 2011 Shell resubmitted environmental impact studies to the EPA and its application for permit to satiate the ruling of the Appeals Board.  In November 2011 that process was complete and the Board gave the green light to EPA to continue with its permit application process.

The new appeal was for the air quality permit for the drillship Nobel Discoverer which is one of two ships that will be used in the Arctic OCS.  Shell was required to retrofit environmental exhaust controls on the ship amongst other environmental protection modifications as a part of its permitting process.  The judges on the Environmental Board of Appeals stated that the petitioners had failed to show a need to reconsider the permits since Shell had already worked to successfully comply with the previous appeal decision by the Board.  Both of Alaska’s Senators and Congressman expressed satisfaction that the EPA Board had finally come around to issuing the permits, and stated the delay has been far too long.  Late last year Senator Murkowski of Alaska managed to pass legislation moving the jurisdiction of Alaska OCS air permits from the EPA to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management which already oversees permits for all other OCS areas.  Alaska had irregularly been under the jurisdiction of the EPA.  BOEM applications have a history of being less prone to delay.  It has been over three years since Shell applied for its permits and has been unable to operate to operate on its ten year lease during this time. 

About 34 permits are required by the Federal Government to be given the green light to conduct exploratory activity on federal offshore leases in the Arctic.  Some of those permits require years of base line environmental study to obtain data sufficient to prove the soundness of development plans.  This process often results in hundreds of millions of dollars in private administrative work, ecology and engineering study to satisfy the basic needs and technical, economic, scientific and legal expertise needed for a permit. 
Shell is now in a race against time to acquire all its permits for a June 2012 start. 
The Department of Interior which overseas all exploration with its various agencies stated late last year that the drilling window for the OCS Arctic would be further shortened by 30 days from ice freeze over, usually November 1st.  This move puts extreme constraints on the number of wells and amount of work possible to be accomplished and thus brings the economic viability of projects into question.  Exploration in the Alaskan Arctic is the most expensive exploration in the world due to the requirements for extreme environmental care, use of best technology and practice and sheer logistical distance.