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It's a ruling that has environmentalists claiming victory. On Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling that puts Shell Oil's plans for offshore drilling in Alaska on hold.
"When we see these delays the big loser is the state of Alaska and the nation in general," said Shell Alaska General Manager Pete Slaiby.
"Because every day we are not drilling and developing offshore are days we are not bringing oil to the market."
The ruling says the Department of
"We feel that in the arctic marine environment it is an ecosystem that is already suffering from climate change and we just don't know enough to drill there right now," said Center for Biological Diversity attorney Rebecca Noblin.
Noblin's organization was one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
"A healthy ecosystem is important to everyone," Noblin continued, "It's not just a bunch of hippies, it's the communities up on the North Slope that will be affected by this."
Noblin said other sources of energy should be pursued over offshore drilling.
"The risk of oil spills are too high," she said. "The government and industry all agree they can't clean oil on ice and at this time with the species struggling it's just not safe to drill there right now."
Slaiby said Shell has done what is required.
"We believe that there has been a very substantial amount of work and it clearly meets the permitting process that's mandated by the MMS," he said.
Slaiby said the ruling might impact when they finally start drilling.
"We had been hoping that we would drill in 2009, this next open water season," he said. "So we'll evaluate what our forward plans are on that. There's always an option to appeal, so we will look at that and decide whether that's the right thing for us to do."
MMS released a statement in response saying they are disappointed in the ruling and have completed an extensive 1,500-page review of Shell's proposal.
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