June 23, 2010

PENSACOLA, Fla. – “Hands Across the Sand” began in Florida as a warning about the dangers of offshore oil drilling even before the Gulf of Mexico disaster, and this Saturday, post-disaster, it goes international. The mission of the event is to steer energy policy away from dependence on fossil fuels and toward cleaner forms of energy.

In February, people joined hands for the first time across Florida beaches, but the Gulf oil spill has pushed the significance of their gesture far beyond the state, according to event founder, Florida restaurant owner Dave Rauschkolb.

“Americans are going to be joining hands. It doesn’t matter whether they are Democrats, Republicans, conservatives or liberals. Americans feel very strongly and deeply about their coastal heritage.”

Rauschkolb says he organized the first statewide gathering to send a message to Florida lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist that Floridians didn’t want them to lift the bans on offshore oil drilling in the Florida waters or near its coastline. Shortly after the event, the Florida Legislature tabled those efforts.

Shannon Miller, with the Florida Defenders of Wildlife chapter, says the current Gulf oil disaster is exactly what the group had feared – and warned of – in February.

“This was our worst nightmare. This is exactly what we were trying to tell people was going to happen. In fact, it’s what we were trying to get our governments to prevent.”

“Hands” events have now been organized in all 50 states and at least 20 countries across the globe. Each event takes place on Saturday, June 26, at noon in their local time zones. Miller says the oil spewing into the Gulf has created a new sense of urgency for these gatherings.

“And unfortunately, it had to be this spill that created such a buzz about it, but I think people now are really concerned.”

She is convinced that it will take years before the ecological and environmental impacts of the disaster are fully understood. Information about the events is online at http://handsacrossthesand.com
___________________
Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories:
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/14631-1<http://www.handsacrossthesand.org>www.handsacrossthesand.org</a>.%20%20%20<br%20/><br%20/>

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Alternet                           June 22, 2010
 
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/22/shocker-judge-who-blocked–
drilling-moratoriam-has-massive-holdings-in-energy-companies/
  
Great news: a Louisiana judge has ruled that the government can’t destroy capitalism by temporarily halting offshore drilling while we scramble to figure out why our gulf has been destroyed by offshore drilling (from the New York Times):
 
In a 22-page ruling, Judge Martin L. C. Feldman of Federal District Court issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of a May 28 order halting all floating offshore drilling projects in more than 500 feet of water and preventing the government from issuing new permits for such projects.
 
The White House promised to appeal the decision.
 
Mr. Gibbs said the president “strongly believes that continuing to drill at those depths without knowing what’s happened” in the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 workers and left a well gushing out of control, “makes no sense” and puts people’s lives at risk.
 
The Obama administration had argued that a six-month suspension of deepwater drilling was necessary so that the government could complete its investigation of the Deepwater Horizon accident, and make sure that other drilling operations on the outer continental shelf were safe.
 
But the order was challenged by a coalition of businesses that provide services and equipment to offshore drilling platforms. The companies sued, asking the judge to declare the moratorium to be invalid and arguing that there was no evidence that existing operations were unsafe.
 
Nope, none at all.
 
Oh, and here’s a list, compiled by Think Progress, of Judge Feldman’s holdings in various oil-related enterprises:
 
Like many judges presiding in the Gulf region, Feldman owns lots of energy stocks, including Transocean, Halliburton, and two of BP’s largest U.S. private shareholders – BlackRock (7.1%) and JP Morgan Chase (28.3%). Here’s a list of Feldman’s income in 2008 (amounts listed unless under $1,000):
 
BlackRock ($12000- $36000)
Ocean Energy ($1000 – $2500)
NGP Capital Resources ($1000 – $2500)
Quicksilver Resources ($5000 – $15000)
Hercules Offshore ($6000 – $17500)
Provident Energy
Peabody Energy
PenGrowth Energy
RPC Inc
Atlas Energy Resources
Parker Drilling
TXCO Resources
EV Energy Partners
Rowan Companies
BPZ Resources
El Paso Corp
KBR Inc
Chesapeake Energy
ATP Oil & Gas

Special thanks to Richard Charter

ROFFER’S OCEAN FISHING FORECASTING SERVICE, INC.
WWW.ROFFS.COM  – (321) 723-5759 // EMAIL: FISH7@ROFFS.COM
 PUBLIC VERSION
See enclosed PDF analysis as the graphic is enclosed. We continue to monitor the conditions in the Gulf of Mexico and east coast of Florida. In today’s update we are using satellite data from the  have combined infrared and ocean color data from June 19-22, 2010 with emphasis on what we were able to see today to provide the background image and ocean frontal analysis. Due to the lack of repeat satellite coverage when using the synthetic aperture  radar (SAR) data we have combined June 17-22, 2010 data to provide a more complete view of the distribution of the surface oil shown in olive green color. The flow of the water has been derived from sequential image analysis which is in agreement with the many ocean buoys that are drifting in the currents. See NOAA’s AOML website for more drifter information (http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dhos/drifters.php), as well as, Horizon Marine’s site (http://www.horizonmarine.com/bp_buoys/).  We have included maps of the drifters which verify our analyses. We have changed some labels on the main oceanographic oil graphic. We have stamped the initials “WOM” in the areas that there is likely to be some water-oil-dispersant mixture at the surface and subsurface of the ocean. We have outlined in grey the tendril that we have maintained visual contact with the water masses without major interruption. The WOM is the water in some dilute form that originated at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site. There probably is more surface oil in the Mississippi Sound area that we have not identified due to a combination of cloud interference, lack of sun glint, and lack of SAR imagery.
The surface oil has spread to the Big Bend area of Florida near 85°00’W & 29°30-40’N. Based on the southward flow of the water we anticipate that the surface oil will move relatively slowly southward over the west Florida continental shelf until it reaches the area (approximately near 84°00’W & 26°30’N) where the influence of the Loop Current eddy “Franklin” will increase the oil’s southward velocity. When the oil reaches the area near the northern boundary of the Loop Current (near 84°00’W & 24°30’N) it appears that some of the oil will move eastward into the Florida Current and Gulf Stream, as well as, westward around the Loop Current eddy “Franklin.” The drifter buoys have shown this path as well. Some of the oil that will be moving over the west Florida continental shelf could move to the Florida Bay area as a function of the winds in that zone.
   The area southwest of Tampa, FL centered near 85°45’W & 27°15’N is the center of circulation of a counter-clockwise rotating eddy. We have had substantial cloud interference over the last five days and we are not certain what happened to the eddy that was centered southeast of this new center of circulation. It is possible that the original eddy degenerated and is moving southeastward around the Loop Current eddy. The drifter buoy data show that the main circulation of the present eddy. This general area has been shown to have surface oil, globs and tar balls by researchers (NOAA_AOML, CIMAS, RSMAS) on the RV Walton Smith. The motion of this eddy along with the currents related to the Loop Current eddy are pulling the surface oil from the general area near 88°15’W & 27°45’N in a southeastward direction toward 86°00’W & 26°15’N. This motion will help keep the surface oil from moving as far westward as it has eastward. There is also offshore motion in the area centered south of Louisiana near 89°30’W & 28°00’N.
Note that the water-oil-dispersant mixture has moved in a clockwise direction around the Loop Current eddy to at least as far as 86°30’W & 25°45’N. This motion has been verified by the drifting buoys. For the drifting buoys to exactly track the path of the WOM there would have to be several buoys deployed in this water.
We have followed the dilute WOM into the Florida Current from the Florida Keys to  the Gulf Stream. A dilute portion of this water has been followed in the Gulf Stream to as far north as Jacksonville, FL. We have not received any confirmed reports of any surface oil sheen or tar balls in any form in the Gulf Stream. We are currently in the turtle mating and nesting season along the Florida east coast and the  importance of any oil – dispersant mixture can not be understated. Boaters in all areas should keep a keen eye open for any pollution in this area and all areas.

Remember that every fishing trip is important to use our ROFFS Fishing Oceanographic Analyses to help you find concentrations of fish, as well as, turtles, birds, and marine mammals.

EDITORS NOTE:
While we have been conducting these analyses as a civic duty and as an exercise in technology transfer, we would like to be contracted to do this to support cleanup, restoration, and litigation, as well as, ecosystem research efforts. If you plan to use these reports including the graphics you must give ROFFS full credit for this work. ROFFS would be appreciative if you would copy this analysis to others who may be interested in our efforts. At ROFFS we have been mapping the distribution and movements of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill from satellites since the explosion. Basically we are using a host of U.S. (NOAA and NASA) and European (ESA) satellites with a variety of spectral  (infrared, near infra-red, visible, RGB and synthetic aperture radar) and spatial resolutions (300 meter to 1 KM) to see the oil. The MODIS satellite data are being received from the University of South Florida IMaRS and the synthetic radar (SAR) imagery is being received from the CSTARS at the University of Miami and also from the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We manipulate and integrate these data at ROFFS and the analyses are ROFFS expert interpretations of the satellite imagery along with other data such as winds, sea surface temperature, currents, and in-situ reports. We routinely discuss our results with several academic and non-academic oceanographers.
We use a plethora of techniques to remove or reduce the effect of clouds and satellite angle, as well as, to manipulate the satellite data to understand the ocean circulation patterns associated with the oil’s motion. We focus our efforts on the offshore segment of the oil. Sequential image analysis allows us to visualize the motion. The red “X” indicates the site of the Deepwater Horizon spill area.
We have been deriving these analyses on a daily basis and posting them to our website (http://www.roffs.com/).  We have many years of experience conducting similar analyses. For example we mapped the plume coming from the New Orleans area after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (http://www.roffs.com/katrina.htm).
—
Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service, Inc. (ROFFS )
60 Westover Drive, West Melbourne, Florida 32904
U.S. Toll Free 800 677-7633 and   321.723.5759 / /WWW.ROFFS.COM
Email: fish7@roffs.com

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2010/press0621.htm
The NewsRoom
Release:
Date: June 21, 2010
 
WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today swore-in former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich to lead reforms that will strengthen oversight and policing of offshore oil and gas development.

Bromwich will oversee the fundamental restructuring of the former Minerals Management Service, which was responsible for overseeing oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf.  A Secretarial Order that Salazar has signed renames the Minerals Management Service the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (“Bureau of Ocean Energy” or “BOE”) as it undergoes reorganization and reform.

“Michael Bromwich has a strong track record of reforming the way organizations work, both in the public and private sectors,” Salazar said. “He will be a key part of our team as we continue to change the way the Department of the Interior does business, help our nation transition to a clean energy future, and lead the reforms that will raise the bar for offshore oil and gas operations.”

“The BP oil spill has underscored the need for stronger oversight of offshore oil and gas operations, more tools and resources for aggressive enforcement, and a more effective structure for the agency that holds companies accountable,” said Bromwich.  “We will move quickly and responsibly on our reforms.”

The Secretarial Order renaming MMS as the Bureau of Ocean Energy is one of several organizational reforms that Bromwich will lead.  Bromwich is working with Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Wilma Lewis; Assistant Secretary for Policy; Management and Budget Rhea Suh; and Senior Advisor Chris Henderson on the implementation program for restructuring of the agency’s oil and gas management missions.

Bromwich served as Inspector General for the Department of Justice from 1994 to 1999 and oversaw numerous high-profile investigations including the misconduct in the FBI laboratory and the FBI’s involvement in the Aldrich Ames case.

He has also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1987 and as an associate counsel in the Office of the Independent Counsel during Iran-Contra investigation from 1987 to 1989.

As a partner with the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson since 1999, Bromwich has specialized in conducting internal investigations for private companies and other organizations; providing monitoring and oversight services in connection with public and private litigation and government enforcement actions; and representing institutions and individuals in white-collar criminal and regulatory matters.

Since May 28, Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey has been serving as Interim Acting Director of the Minerals Management Service.  Abbey will return to serving as full-time director of the BLM.

As a lawyer in private practice, Bromwich conducted many major internal investigations for companies, both publicly traded and privately held, in the energy, pharmaceuticals, public accounting, and private security industries, among others; reviewed the compliance programs and policies of major companies in a variety of industries, conducted extensive field reviews of such programs and made recommendations for their improvement; and represented companies and individuals in state and federal criminal investigations.

In 2002 the Department of Justice and the District of Columbia selected Bromwich to serve as the Independent Monitor for the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department, focusing on use of force, civil rights integrity, internal misconduct, and training issues.  He served in that position until 2008 when the department was determined to have achieved substantial compliance.

In 2007, Bromwich was selected by the City of Houston to undertake a comprehensive investigation of the Houston Police Department Crime Lab. The investigation identified serious problems in some of the crime lab’s operations, and Bromwich made recommendations for the lab’s improvement.

A 1976 graduate of Harvard, Bromwich received a JD from Harvard Law School and a Masters degree in public policy from the university’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Over the last several weeks, Secretary Salazar has continued his agenda to change how the Department of the Interior does business, including launching several reforms to the management and oversight of offshore energy operations.
Recent reforms include:

·    Moving to divide MMS’s three separate and conflicting missions into three separate entities – the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Office of Natural Resource Revenue to improve the oversight of offshore energy development;

·    Issuing a directive to all oil and gas lessees and operators on the Outer Continental Shelf implementing stronger safety requirements that Salazar recommended in his 30-day safety report to the President;

·    Issuing a directive to all oil and gas lessees and operators on the Outer Continental Shelf strengthening blowout prevention requirements; and

·    Ordering a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the gulf to give the industry time to implement new safety requirements and to allow the Presidential Commission to complete its work on the Deepwater Horizon spill.

To view the Secretarial Order, click here.
_____________
THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
WASHINGTON
ORDER NO. 3302

Subject: Change of the Name of the Minerals Management Service to the Bureau of Ocean
Energy Iv1anagemem, Regulation, and Enforcement

Sec. 1 Purpose. The purpose of this Order is to change the name of the Minerals Management

Service (MMS) to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement
(BOEMRE).

Sec. 2 Authority. This Order is issued under the authority of Section 2 of Reorganization Plan

No.3 of 1950 (64 Stat. 1262). as amended.

Sec. 3 The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement
a. The Minerals Management Service shall hereafter be named the Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement.

b. The BOEMRE shall be headed by a director and shall be under the supervision of the
Assistant Secretary-~Land and Minerals Management.

c. The BOEMRE shall exercise all authorities previously vested in the MMS.

Sec. 4 Implementation. The Assistant Secretary-Land and Minerals Management and the
Assistant Secretary-Policy. Management and Budget shall take all appropriate steps to
implement this Order including. but not limited to:

a. Changing all references of the MMS to BOEMRE in the Departmental Manual:

b. Promulgating a brief rule in the Federal Register changing all references of the MMS

to BOEMRE in the Department’s regulations: and
c. Notifying the Congress of the name change from the MMS to the BOEMRE.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/22/eveningnews/main6607960.shtml
June 22, 2010
CBS News Has Learned the Government Will Release Its First Report on Subsea Oil and the News Isn’t Good

By Sharyl Attkisson

(CBS)  Throughout the oil spill crisis there’s been concern about oil below the surface of the water.

The government is about to release its first extensive report on subsea oil, reports CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

All along, this has been the BP company line:

“The oil is on the surface,” said BP CEO Tony Hayward on May 30.

Sources say the government report will leave little doubt subsea oil is a serious problem. The subsea oil is like a sneak attack hidden unseen beneath the surface where it can travel under the boom and reach the shore. Independent scientists have been trying to sound the alarm for weeks.

On June 8, University of Georgia marine sciences professor Samantha Joye said, “The plume is very zig-zaggy.”

Researchers tracked an underwater oil plume 15 miles wide and three miles long more than 1000 meters below the surface.

Still, CBS News is told the government’s report out soon won’t be a comprehensive picture of all the oil. It’s more like a sampling since only tiny slices of the Gulf have even been checked.

Special thanks to Richard Charter