Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Energy policies and not carbon prices will drive the U.S. response to climate change for the foreseeable future, the incoming Senate leader on energy issues said yesterday.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who is expected to claim the gavel of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee next month, said in a brief interview that although certain lawmakers support a carbon tax, such a policy has little prospect of becoming law in the near future.

“I think this is a very significant lift right now politically,” Wyden said.

Wyden took part in bipartisan efforts earlier this fall aimed at avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1 if the White House and Congress do not act. Legislation addressing the crisis was once viewed as a possible opening for a carbon tax.

But while he took a dim view yesterday of chances for a carbon tax, Wyden said the same objective of reducing emissions could be achieved if the next Congress enacts policies that promote low-carbon energy.

“What I’m going to try to do in every practical way I can is to promote bipartisan approaches that advance a low-carbon economy,” he said.

Wyden’s comments echoed those made by Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) at a forum late last month (Greenwire, Nov. 28).
Wyden said some renewables, like biomass and hydropower, had been overlooked by policymakers despite having the potential to generate cleaner power in diverse regions of the country.

“What I’m going to try to do is be very results-oriented,” he said. He added that he was already talking to colleagues about ways to promote low-carbon energy.

While Wyden is expected to chair the energy panel, the death yesterday of Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) opened the possibility that he could head the Intelligence Committee in the new Congress instead. But Wyden waved away questions about that possibility yesterday.

“I’m going to let Sen. [Harry] Reid make any announcements with respect to committees,” he said, referring to the Senate majority leader. But he added that he was continuing to lay the groundwork for his chairmanship of the energy panel.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Yes we can! DV

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Published: Monday, December 17, 2012

An environmental group today filed a lawsuit challenging the Interior Department’s five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan, arguing the agency has failed to accurately analyze the costs and benefits of the plan.

The Center for Sustainable Economy, in a filing to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management violated the National Environmental Policy Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and Administrative Procedure Act last summer when it finalized a plan to allow a dozen new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and up to three off the shores of Alaska.

The plan threatens catastrophic spills that could harm Gulf coastlines while failing to maximize revenue from lease sales, said the Santa Fe, N.M.-based group, which is represented in the case by Steven Sugarman and Michael Livermore of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law.

“Key factors were ignored by BOEM including the massive uncertainty associated with the potential for deepwater drilling disasters, the current glut in gas production, record U.S. fuel exports and the fact that millions of acres of existing leases are idle,” Sugarman said in a statement. “These omissions from BOEM’s economic analysis create an extreme and illegal bias in favor of new leasing.”

Recent lease sales have included 35 tracts in waters deeper than the BP PLC oil spill in April 2010, the group said.

An Interior spokesman today said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
The agency in late June finalized a leasing plan that includes targeted new development off the North Slope of Alaska but forgoes sales in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Interior officials called it a “cautious but forward-looking” solution (E&ENews PM, June 28).

It was followed by the release of the final version of a rule designed to prevent a repeat of the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 men and spilled nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The agency’s drilling safety rule set in stone interim steps companies have largely followed since the Macondo well blowout to enhance well integrity, well control systems and blowout preventers
(Greenwire, Aug. 16).

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://english.cri.cn/6826/2012/12/16/2361s738687.htm

2012-12-16 04:21:08 Xinhua Web Editor: Wang Wei

A new platform will be used to further explore the waters to the north of Cuba’s central region for oil, state oil company Cubapetroleo (CUPET) said Saturday.

The Norwegian oil rig, Songa Mercur, will start to drill the well L-01X in the next few days under a contract signed with Russian company Zarubezhneft, according to a release from the company published in the official Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma.

“As usual, this platform received inspections by CUPET experts and Cuban regulatory authorities to ensure that the operations are conducted with maximum safety and without damage to the environment,” it said.

The new rig replaces the oil platform Scarabeo 9, which left for North Africa on Nov. 14. The operation is scheduled to last approximately six months.

The well, with a depth of 6,500 meters, will be the deepest so far drilled in Cuba.

The oil rig was under inspection to verify that less than 10 percent of its components are manufactured in the United States, a restriction imposed by the U.S. as part of its economic sanctions against the island.

Cuba estimates about 20 billion barrels of oil reserves in its exclusive economic zone at the Gulf of Mexico, but the U.S Geologic Service considers a more modest figure of about 5 billion to 9 billion barrels.

The platform Songa Mercur is owned by the Norwegian company Songa Offshore and has all the necessary means to ensure the work to be done efficiently and safely, the release said.

Scarabeo 9, the previous oil rig, was also inspected by US experts in waters of Trinidad and Tobago, with the permit of the Spanish company Repsol, which had hired the platform.
Russian sources said that the first result of the operation will be announced in May 2013. Zarubezhneft, president of the directing board, Nikolai Brunich, traveled to Cuba in November as part of a high level delegation, which visited the Songa Mercur after its arrival in the island.

This will be the fourth exploratory trial, after the failure of the Scarabeo 9, which operated in three different blocks hired in consecutive occasions by the Spanish company Repsol, the Malaysian PC Gulf, the Russian group Gazprom Neft, and the Venezuelan state- owned PDVSA.

Since 2003, Cuba produces annually 21 million oil barrels and 1. 1 million cubic meters of natural gas, but this figure covers only half of its domestic power needs.

To compensate the other 50 percent, the island receives 10,000 oil barrels daily from Venezuela, its main political and economic ally, and the strongest oil power in the region. However, that supply has raised concerns after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had to go through a complicated fourth anticancer surgery in Havana, the capital of Cuba, including the removal of two vertebras of his backbone, and his previous announced warning on the possibility that he could not continue in office.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/12/14/BP-asked-to-be-open-about-gulf-accident/UPI-11721355482965/

Published: Dec. 14, 2012 at 6:02 AM

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) — British energy company BP is suspected of withholding evidence about a new oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico, Democratic lawmakers said.

The U.S. Coast Guard, BP and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have worked to assess sheen observed in the Gulf of Mexico this fall. The Coast Guard confirmed that sheen was from the well that failed in 2010 and backed plans for a subsea survey.

U.S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., members of House energy committees, called on BP, the Coast Guard and other concerned parties to disclose what they’ve learned about the latest incidents.

“There is no statute of limitations or protections for a crime against the environment, and BP should immediately hand over any and all information related to this new chapter in their oil spill disaster,” Markey said in a statement.

BP had put a 750-pound cap over an opening in the so-called cofferdam, which was a failed attempt to seal the leak that resulted from an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010.

Duke Walker, federal on-scene coordinator for the Deepwater Horizon response, was quoted by New Orleans broadcaster WWL-TV as saying the “only” place oil could be was in the containment dome.

“During all three of our previous missions, we found no indications on any of the three well head sites, particularly the primary, that there was anything to be concerned about, and there was no sign of leaking oil,” he said. “Out of an abundance of caution, every time we’re down there, we’ll look again to verify that that’s the still case.”

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/12/10/BP-in-hot-seat-for-Gulf-of-Mexico-sheen/UPI-51801355142586/#ixzz2F8ALJCZv

UPI: BP in hot seat for Gulf of Mexico sheen

Published: Dec. 10, 2012 at 7:29 AM

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) — U.S. lawmakers said they were turning to the U.S. Coast Guard to get information about sheen from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident.

The Coast Guard, BP and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have worked to assess sheen observed in the Gulf of Mexico in late September. The Coast Guard confirmed the sheen was from the well that failed in 2010 and backed plans for a subsea survey.

U.S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., members of House energy committees, issued a letter to the Coast Guard requesting more information about sheen observed in the area of the Deepwater Horizon wreck.

Markey and Waxman said they were concerned about lingering environmental effects from the 2010 spill.

“It is imperative that BP take all available actions to mitigate further environmental damage from its oil spill,” the letter read.

A review of peer-reviewed research on the spill by the U.S. Geological Survey said “for the most part” oil spilled during the incident was consumed by bacteria.

BP had put a 750-pound cap over an opening in the so-called cofferdam, which was a failed attempt to seal the leak that resulted from an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57558916/oil-may-be-seeping-from-deepwater-horizon-site/

Not again. This is so unbelieveable. It never ends! DV

December 13, 2012 7:42 AM

By
Sharyl Attkisson

PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO

CBS News has learned that BP is set to embark Thursday on the fifth day of a little-known subsea mission under Coast Guard supervision to look for any new oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The BP oil rig exploded in 2010, killing 11 workers and sending a total estimated 206 million gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for three months before it was capped.
In September, a new oil sheen was spotted about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. Tests confirmed the oil came from the infamous Macondo well underneath the Deepwater Horizon. BP’s underwater vehicle observed oil seeping from the well’s containment dome and, after a remote operation, declared the leaks plugged on October 23. The company and the Coast Guard said it wasn’t feasible to clean up the slick, and that it didn’t pose a risk to the shoreline.

But more oil continues to surface. Slicks and sheens of varying sizes and shapes have been documented by satellite photos, as well as aerial video recorded by the non-profit environmental group “On Wings of Care.” It’s suspected that an unknown amount of oil trapped in the containment dome, and in the wreckage and equipment from 2010, could be seeping out.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., helped lead the original investigation of BP after the Deepwater Horizon exploded, and says it’s deja vu: BP is not turning over videos and information requested by Congress.

“My concern is that substantial amounts of oil could still be leaking from the wreckage,” Markey told CBS News.

Last month, BP pleaded guilty to more than a dozen felonies from the 2010 disaster, including lying to Congress about how much oil was really pouring into the water.

Markey says BP is now repeating its stonewalling behavior of two years ago. For more than two months, Markey and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have been asking BP for underwater video and information such as the size of the slicks and how much oil could be trapped, but BP has said it will not provide the information due to pending investigations and litigation.

“Back in 2010, I said BP was either lying or incompetent. Well, it turns out they were both,” says Markey. “This is the same crime scene, and the American public today is entitled to the same information that BP was lying about in 2010 so that we can understand the full dimension of the additional environmental damage.”

BP spent a fortune after the 2010 disaster — on ads to improve its image. It also spent $18 billion on cleanup and victims, and $4.5 billion more to settle criminal charges.
The Coast Guard canceled an interview with CBS News at the last minute on Wednesday. BP also declined to be interviewed but told us in a statement, “The Macondo well and its associated relief wells are secure.” BP also says it will work with the Coast Guard “on any further steps, as needed, to address the results” of this week’s survey of the wells and wreckage where oil from 2010 could still be trapped.

_________________

Special thanks to Richard Charter