As this Bureau of Ocean Energy Management chart illustrates, multiple rounds of public and environmental reviews occur before production can take place at the offshore oil and gas leasing program, individual lease sale, exploration, and development and production phases.  With the federal government already having removed over 42 million acres of Alaskan offshore waters in recent years, further reducing or restricting the amount of Alaskan waters potentially available for leasing during the leasing program development stage would prematurely harm the energy and economic future of Alaska and the U.S. at large.