An ice-ridden, remote, ecologically-rich, and picturesque region of Alaska's Arctic will remain that way, at least for 2014. On January 30, Royal Dutch Shell's new CEO, Ben van Beurden, made the announcement that sent a wave of praise ricocheting throughout the conservation community: Shell will not pursue offshore oil drilling in the U.S. Arctic Ocean this year. This announcement piggybacks off the long-awaited decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that invalidated 2008's Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 193, offered by the Department of the Interior, based on a lowball estimate of how much oil development could occur as a result of the sale. The decision now opens up the opportunity for a revised Environmental Impact Statement of oil and gas development in the U.S. Chukchi Sea, including the potential for a public comment period.