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Alaska Delegation to Zinke: Exclude Bering Strait from OCS Proposal

The coast near Wales, Alaska

Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Young say they support oil and gas leases in both the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. However, their letter asks Interior Secretary Zinke to remove 11 regions of offshore Alaska from the draft OCS proposal, including Bering Strait waters previously requested for protection by Kawerak.

72-Hour Government Shutdown Delays Federal-Level Meetings on Rural Alaska Issues

United States Capitol Building

Besides affecting AFN delegates’ and Melanie Bahnke’s scheduled conversations with government employees, the shutdown impacted Kawerak’s Board Chairman, Frank Katchatag, who was slated to speak at a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management public meeting today. This one BOEM proposed public meeting to be held in Alaska, regarding the National OCS program, is now postponed.

BOEM Proposes Oil and Gas Lease Sale of Almost All Outer Continental Shelf; Kawerak and Others Not In Favor

Offshore oil rig, viewed in the distance from the shore with waves crashing in the foreground

In a reversal of Obama-era policy, a new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management proposal would open nearly all the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States to oil and gas exploration. The draft proposal recommends 19 lease sales be held in Alaska, 11 of them in areas not considered for oil and gas leasing in decades or ever before. That doesn’t sit well with regional organizations like Kawerak.