Drilling: DEC commissioner’s letter to EPA requests expedited permits for Dutch oil giant.

When Dutch oil giant Shell ran into problems recently securing federal air pollution permits needed to launch its controversial offshore drilling campaign this summer, the company went to the state’s top pollution regulator for help.

Larry Hartig, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, obliged with a letter last week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for a hurry-up on Shell’s permits, saying the company “will incur significant economic harm if this drilling season is lost.”


The letter seems to indicate the state is aligned with industry on the drilling, which the North Slope Borough, environmental groups and Native whalers are opposing.

DEC spokeswoman Lynda Giguere confirmed that Shell requested the letter, but stressed it was written by the commissioner’s office, not Shell.

And the DEC “did not intend to, nor did it, express any position on the merits of the case,” Giguere wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. The concern is the time pressure Shell faces, she said.