Unalaska, AK – Mayor Shirley Marquardt said she won't be accepting an invitation from Shell Oil to travel to Norway on the company's tab to learn more about offshore natural gas exploration.

Shell is hoping to drill for gas in the North Aleutian Basin, in an area of Bristol Bay that is important red king crab habitat. The company had invited to pay for Marquardt to attend and speak on a panel at a conference on the socioeconomic dimensions of Arctic development hosted by Norway's Bodo University in May, and to tour the Statoil Snohvit natural gas facility in the Barents Sea. The mayors of Dillingham and the Aleutians East Borough were also invited.

Because of the corporate sponsorship, Marquardt brought the trip up for consideration by the City Council at last night's meeting, at which the council voted 5 to 1 in favor of her going.

"We can't control when or where [Shell has] meetings, and what they're about," said council member Roger Rowland, who voted to approve the trip. "This train is moving, and we can either lay on the tracks or try to get in the engine."

But the idea came under criticism from council member Katherine McGlashan, who voted against it.

"I think public comment should come first," she said, suggesting that Shell should be coming to the Bering Sea communities rather than the other way around. McGlashan also questioned the council's position on Shell's exploration plans, which Marquardt and other council members have said should remain neutral until an environmental impact statement for the project is completed. Several members of the public at the meeting echoed McGlashan's concerns.

At the meeting, Marquardt said she was "ambivalent" about going to the conference on Shell's dime, but believed it would be a worthwhile educational opportunity. This morning, however, she reconsidered.

"The more I thought about it, some things that people said last night made a lot of sense," she said. "Even though I think the information is valuable and interesting, there are other people going on that trip who we can get the information from."

Marquardt said that after last night's meeting she had asked the city clerk to check on how the Shell-sponsored trip would square with the new ethics ordinances the city council passed earlier this month, which have tighter rules concerning elected officials receiving gifts. But she said that didn't factor in her decision this morning.

The Minerals Management Service expects to open up the Bristol Bay leases for bidding in three years.