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Posts Tagged ‘environment’

Los Angeles Times Government Makes Gulf Oil Disaster Even Worse Bacon’s Rebellion … 2010 • Category: Energy, Environment, Feature Just when you think that the horrific explosion and sinking of an offshore drilling rig and an oil spill … Gulf oil spill : Government argues to reinstate drilling moratorium Christian Science Monitor all 1,211 news articles

A coalition of 28 groups from New Jersey to Alabama joined forces today to tell the Obama Administration to permanently withdraw the Mid- and South Atlantic and eastern Gulf from any drilling for offshore oil and gas. (See below for a complete list.) Prior to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, the groups had raised concerns about serious harm to the coastal communities, economy and environment in these areas from potential oil and gas drilling as proposed by the Obama Administration on March 31. The ongoing crisis in the Gulf, caused in part by the utter failure of federal oversight of offshore drilling that has now come to light, is a tragic example of the risks involved and the lives and livelihoods at stake with any expanded drilling. Southern Environmental Law Center, a regional non-profit advocacy organization, submitted formal comments on behalf of the groups to the Department of Interior today detailing the multiple reasons why the agency must permanently withdraw the Mid- and South Atlantic and eastern Gulf from its proposed 5-year (2012-2017) offshore drilling plan. The deadline for public comments is today. See the comments here (pdf). “Opening these areas to oil and gas drilling would be reckless in the extreme. We are witnessing the dire consequences the oil spill is having in the fragile ecosystems of the central Gulf. A spill would be just as devastating in the Mid- or South Atlantic or the eastern Gulf. In fact, the government ranks the shorelines of these areas as more environmentally sensitive to oil spills than the central Gulf,” said SELC attorney Marirose Pratt. The Mid- and South Atlantic and eastern Gulf rank just above the central Gulf as the Outer Continental Shelf regions whose coastal habitats are most environmentally sensitive to oil spills due to their extensive coastal lowlands made up of wetlands, marshes, swamps and other sensitive shoreline features, according to recent analyses by the Interior Department cited in the groups’ comment letter. The coastal and marine resources of the Mid- and South Atlantic and eastern Gulf support the region’s substantial fishing and tourism economies. In 2008, there were $262.8 million worth of commercial fish landings in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, according to NOAA. Tourism provides 30,000 jobs on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. In Virginia, the 18 cities and counties of the Chesapeake Bay and coast brought in $4.25 billion in tourism revenue in 2007. Yet, the three Outer Continental Shelf regions hold just a little over seven months of oil and 15 months of natural gas at current rates of U.S. consumption, according to government estimates. “The calculation is crystal clear – risking the long-term sustainability of the South’s fisheries and coastal economies is not worth the short-term gain in oil and gas. Far from it,” said SELC attorney Deborah Murray. “With families and businesses in the Gulf suffering and more wildlife dying every day, we can not afford to delay immediate action to shift to clean, sustainable energy.” In their comments, the groups note that federal law requires Minerals Management Service (now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcment) to consider alternatives as part of the environmental review of its proposed 5-year plan. So far, the only alternatives the agency has identified are simply changing the number or frequency of lease sales, limiting leasing areas, and including coastal buffers. The groups contend MMS must rigorously explore alternatives to oil and gas drilling in the first place, including meeting energy needs through efficiency programs and renewable sources. Virginia was on track to be the first on the Atlantic with offshore oil and drilling until Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar suspended the leasing process on May 27; however, the lease sale remains in the proposed 5-year plan. Much of the 3 million acre lease area overlaps with areas used by the Navy for training operations based mostly out of the Norfolk Naval Base – the world’s largest and an economic mainstay of Hampton Roads. The Department of Defense has consistently opposed oil and gas drilling in Virginia due to concerns of conflicts with its operations; the agency reiterated those concerns earlier this year. Organizations on the letter: Alabama Rivers Alliance Altamaha Riverkeeper & Altamaha Coastkeeper (GA) Center for a Sustainable Coast (GA) Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper (AL) Coastal Conservation League (SC) Conservation Alabama Conservation Council of North Carolina Conservation Voters of South Carolina Defenders of Wildlife Environment New Jersey Environment Virginia Georgia Conservancy Glynn Environmental Coalition (GA) Hurricane Creekkeeper, Friends of Hurricane Creek (AL) Mobile Baykeeper North Carolina Coastal Federation North Carolina Conservation Network North Carolina Native Plant Society, Southeast Coast Chapter Oceana Ogeechee Riverkeeper (GA) Pamlico-Tar River Foundation (NC) PenderWatch & Conservancy (NC) Savannah Riverkeeper Sierra Club, North Carolina Chapter Sierra Club, South Carolina Chapter Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter Southern Environmental Law Center Virginia League of Conservation Voters

Environmental groups expressed disappointment over a federal district court decision today to halt a six-month federal moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that would have allowed for safety reviews after the loss of life in the Deepwater Horizon explosion and ongoing deepwater oil spill damaging the Gulf Coast.

Stations #1, 2 and 3 teach visitors why wetlands are so important to the environment. In addition to being a fruitful habitat for wildlife marshes do well for the ecosystem and human life. The vegetation can protect wildlife from …

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Hilliardton Marsh

The Hindu 2010 Oil Spill -BP Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill and Health Concerns CNM News Network 2010 Oil Spill -BP Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill and Health Concerns. We all know that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is going to wreak havoc on the environment, … Some oil spill events from Friday, June 11, 2010 The Associated Press Florida Releases June 11, 2010 Gulf Oil Spill Situation Update Gov Monitor Hiding the numbers on the Gulf oil spill disaster: BP or the US Government? Examiner.com Baltimore Sun

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) continues to approve new leases after the Deepwater Horizon explosion that give British Petroleum and other companies the right to drill even more deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico under the same inadequate oversight that led to the current oil spill, according to a new legal challenge filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Defenders of Wildlife. The groups say current policies create an incentive to allow drilling even in the face of evident risks because once a lease is issued by MMS, the U.S. government is obligated to pay the lessee either the fair market value of the lease or the amount spent to obtain the bid plus costs and interest if the government cancels the lease or refuses to allow drilling. MMS approved new leases for deepwater tracts as recently as June 10 under the same lax oversight complicit in the current Gulf spill. “MMS quietly granted oil companies the right to drill 198 more deepwater wells as if the spill wasn’t devastating the Gulf,” said Derb Carter, senior attorney and director, Carolinas Office, Southern Environmental Law Center. “If it’s too deep to stop a spill, it’s too deep to drill. BP is under criminal investigation for its explosion and dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, yet MMS approved 13 new leases for BP to drill in deepwater without any better oversight.” The groups’ lawsuit challenges MMS approval of leases, including 198 deepwater leases, in the Central Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20 and ongoing spill. In a legal claim added on June 10 to an ongoing lawsuit in federal court, the groups allege that MMS failed its legal responsibility after the explosion and spill to reconsider its 2008 conclusions that the sale of the deepwater leases and future oil drilling would have no potential significant impact to the environment and no detailed environmental review was required. “Clueless and inept is really the only way to describe the ongoing situation at MMS,” said Mike Senatore, vice president for Conservation Law at Defenders of Wildlife. “This agency is at the epicenter of the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history and yet it’s still going about business as usual. How else do you explain MMS’s approval of the right to drill hundreds of new wells in the Gulf, including 13 for BP, based on the same fundamentally flawed and patently illegal environmental documents used to green-light the Deepwater Horizon operation?” Despite President Obama’s moratorium on new deepwater wells, MMS approved the leases as it did the Deepwater Horizon rig—under the same inadequate environmental review, requiring no failsafe spill preventions, and with insufficient spill response plans—all of which led to the ongoing Gulf oil spill. Now news reports say the President is considering cutting short his moratorium on new deepwater wells due to increasing pressure from oil companies. “The public needs to understand that we are subsidizing the oil companies for risky deepwater drilling,” added Catherine Wannamaker, senior attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center. “It’s the public that pays the cost of lax oversight. It’s clear BP was in over its head drilling in deep waters and now the Gulf is mired in oil.” Although oil companies must obtain approved exploration plans and a permit before drilling a well, MMS routinely grants these authorizations through a “categorical exclusion” or waiver of additional environmental review. Thirteen new leases for BP—including four leases in the Mississippi Canyon near the site of the uncontrolled well—are among 198 new deepwater (over 200 meters or about 656 feet deep) oil drilling leases approved by MMS as past of Lease Sale Number 213 in the Central Gulf of Mexico. At least 92 lease tracts are at deeper depths than the Deepwater Horizon well, with the deepest ones nearly two miles deep or almost twice the depth of the Deepwater Horizon well. One hundred forty-nine leases in Lease Sale Number 213 are over 400 meters deep. If wells over 400 meters (about a quarter mile) deep from this sale produce oil, the federal government will also subsidize those wells through the “royalty relief” program under which oil companies are relieved from paying the normal 18.5 percent royalty on the volume of the oil produced from risky deep water wells. The deeper the drilling, the more oil the company can recover royalty free. Four of the tracts MMS approved for BP to lease are over a mile deep (between 1600 and 2000 meters) and will receive a royalty suspension of 12 million barrels of oil; six tracts MMS approved for BP are over a mile and a quarter (2000 meters) deep and will receive a royalty suspension for 16 million barrels. At $71 a barrel of oil, the royalty relief program would provide what amounts to a public subsidy up to $210 million for deepwater leases at that depth (2000 meters). The Southern Environmental Law Center and Defenders of Wildlife filed suit in federal court in Alabama on May 17 challenging MMS’s approval of oil drilling exploration plans, including BP’s Deepwater Horizon, with categorical exclusions or waivers of environmental review. ### Note to Editors: • MMS Leasing Activities Information document for Lease Sale 213 in the Central Gulf of Mexico is available at http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/213/213ph2letter.pdf • MMS Final Notice of Sale (NOS) 213 is available at http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/213/fnos213.pdf • 2008 Environmental Assessment for Lease Sale 213: http://www.gomr.mms.gov/PDFs/2009/2009-053.pdf • Summary of Royalty Procedures: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ftproot/features/ngoffshore.pdf About Southern Environmental Law Center The Southern Environmental Law Center is the only regional nonprofit using the power of the law to protect the health and environment of the Southeast (Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama). Founded in 1986, SELC’s team of 40 legal experts represent more than 100 partner groups on issues of climate change and energy, air and water quality, forests, the coast and wetlands, transportation, and land use. WEB: www.SouthernEnvironment.org About Defenders of Wildlife Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than one million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit www.defenders.org.

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MMS deepwater lease sales to BP and other companies continue lax oversight say groups

Tennessee Wild, a broad coalition of conservation organizations, praised Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker today for introducing legislation to permanently protect new wilderness areas on the Cherokee National Forest.

SuperGeo Technologies develops a mobile GIS application for investigating the ecological environment in Hsiang-Shan Wetland . Through the collected data, analysts can effectively predict the impacts on the environment from economical …

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Mobile GIS for Coastal Ecology and Wetland Investigation …

SuperGeo Technologies develops a mobile GIS application for investigating the ecological environment in Hsiang-Shan Wetland . Through the collected data, analysts can effectively predict the impacts on the environment from economical …

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Mobile GIS for Coastal Ecology and Wetland Investigation …

Reuters Europe and jobs keep stocks' anxiety high Reuters L) massive Gulf Coast oil spill on the environment and the energy industry also is likely to stay in focus, with moves to contain the spill so far having … and more