News Articles

Following is a selection of recent news articles about Bristol Bay. Click into any news story to read the full article.

MMS’s Troubled Past
May 29, 2010
The Washington Post
Juliet Eilperin and Madonna Lebling
Elizabeth Birnbaum's resignation is the latest blow to the Minerals Management Service, an agency that has come under increasing scrutiny over the past two years. In his news conference Thursday, President Obama singled out the agency as being a problem and said that although Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had started cleaning house there, "the culture had not fully changed in MMS." He described it as "a culture in which oil companies were able to get what they wanted without sufficient oversight and regulation." Here's a look at key dates in the agency's troubled recent history:
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AP Source: Salazar Delays Arctic Ocean Drilling
May 27, 2010
ABC News
Matthew Daly
The Obama administration is suspending proposed exploratory drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says in a report to be delivered to the White House on Thursday that he will not consider applications for permits to drill in the Arctic until 2011. Shell Oil is poised to begin exploratory drilling this summer on leases as far as 140 miles offshore.
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Oil Follies: Local fishermen worried about oil, climate; people must 'start raising hell'
May 20, 2010
Seattle PostGlobe
Martha Baskin
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been embroiled in controversy since it was revealed on May 5 that he allowed the Minerals Management Service to exempt BP’s offshore drilling plan from environmental review. This week the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against Salazar for approving 300 drilling operations without permits required by the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.
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Who'd Obama please with his offshore oil drilling plan?
April 29, 2010
McClatchy Newspapers
Margaret Talev and Kevin G. HallMargaret Talev and Kevin G. Hall
President Barack Obama's announcement Wednesday that he'll lift bans on new drilling for oil and natural gas off much of the U.S. coastline drew criticism from environmentalists and halfhearted welcomes from Republicans, even as Obama called it only one part of a broad strategy to reduce foreign oil dependence and enact climate-change policy.
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Obama Drilling Policy Excludes Bristol Bay
March 31, 2010
Anchorage Daily News
Elizabeth Bluemink
President Obama announced Wednesday he supports development of some oil and gas leases in Arctic waters off Alaska's coast but won't allow drilling in federal waters near Bristol Bay.
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Drill, but not Everywhere
March 31, 2010
New York Times
Editorial
For years, the debate over offshore drilling for gas and oil has been a war of sound bites between the "drill now, drill everywhere" crowd that dominated the Bush administration and the Republican campaign in 2008, and members of the environmental community who would leave the country's outer continental shelf untouched.
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Bristol Bay drilling gets a reprieve
March 31, 2010
The Bristol Bay Times
Bay Times Staff
Bristol Bay fishermen and members of local Native corporations reacted with gratitude and relief after today's announcement that the Obama administration decided to halt plans for offshore drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay and southeast Bering Sea.
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