Groups challenge Shell’s Alaska drilling plans

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Five environmental groups and an Alaska native organization said on Tuesday they were challenging the U.S. government’s decision to allow Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) to explore for oil off the northern coast of Alaska this summer.

The groups asked the federal Interior Department to reverse the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) February approval of Shell’s plans to drill up to four exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea this summer.


The groups also filed a motion in federal court, seeking to have the MMS’s decision overturned.

“We haven’t had a chance to fully review the appeal,” said Shell spokeswoman in Anchorage, Terzah Tippin Poe. “Shell is confident we can explore in an environmentally sound and safe manner.”

Reuters