Alaska sues to halt US offshore drill moratorium in state

The state of Alaska filed suit Thursday in US District Court to overturn what it called a de-facto federal moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the state's Outer Continental Shelf. Governor Sean Parnell and state Attorney General Dan Sullivan said the Obama administration's decision to implement a ban on new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of BP's Macondo well blowout imposed a de facto moratorium on OCS drilling in Alaska. Such a move, they said, violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and other laws because Interior Secretary Ken Salazar did not consult with Parnell, or involve the state in the decision. "There was no notice, no consultation. We were never told that a moratorium would be coming," Parnell said in a press briefing. Salazar acknowledged during a visit last week to Anchorage that while Alaska was not included in the formal moratorium implemented after Macondo, an informal moratorium on the Arctic OCS was in effect because no approvals would be given on federal permits until safety reviews of deepwater drilling are complete...more