U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, criticized today’s announcement by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that it will seek to impose additional retroactive requirements that will further restrict domestic offshore oil and natural gas production in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. 

“These regulations will impose additional costs in return for dubious benefits at a time when domestic operators are locked in ferocious competition with the likes of Iran and Russia,” Murkowski said. “The administration is trying to earn plaudits for including the Arctic offshore in its proposed leasing plan, but at the same time is proposing regulations that would make Arctic development all the more difficult. This smoke-and-mirrors approach jeopardizes the energy security of our nation.”

Earlier this week, Interior unveiled the latest step in its development of a Five-Year Program for OCS development for 2017-2022. Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called the reversal of planned drilling in the Atlantic OCS an ominous warning for Alaska.