The Alaska pipeline damage casts doubts on the industry's ability to maintain infrastructure
Environmental groups said on Wednesday that the shutdown of operations in BP's Prudhoe bay in Alaska should make the
passage of legislation to open the US Outer Continental Shelf to drilling more difficult, and should end debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, also on the Alaska North Slope.
Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the Alaska pipeline damage casts doubts on the industry's ability to maintain infrastructure and lends further credence to arguments
against erecting oil and gas drilling rigs on the OCS.
The House and Senate each passed bills this summer to open the OCS, with
the House bill potentially opening the nation's entire OCS and the Senate
limiting new drilling to an 8.3 million acre swath in the Gulf of Mexico.
