Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/07/08/BP-oil-spill-fine-plan-is-complex/UPI-17221341773439/print#ixzz209eQQUIr
www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-everglades-backers-seek-bp-billions-20120708,0,2981402.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Published: July 8, 2012 at 2:50 PM
NEW ORLEANS, July 8 (UPI) — NEW ORLEANS, July 8 (UPI) — A distribution formula that takes coastal populations into account could put a damper on the gulf oil-spill compensation Louisiana receives, documents indicate.

The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Sunday that while Louisiana will still receive the largest cut of the fines levied in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida could siphon off some of the total because it has more people living along the Gulf Coast.

The newspaper said the complex distribution formula is contained in the compromise Restore Act passed by Congress last week. The bill, which was signed by President Obama, directs that Louisiana, Florida and three other gulf states received 80 percent of an estimated $5 billion-$21 billion in fines levied on the British oil producer BP for Clean Water Act violations.

The money will be used for state projects such as tourism promotion, parks improvements, flood control and wildlife habitat.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Environmentalists eye billions to shore up Florida ecology
By William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau
10:24 AM EDT, July 8, 2012

WASHINGTON — Everglades restoration backers are aiming to get a big piece of the billions of dollars of fines that oil giant BP is expected to pay for polluting the Gulf of Mexico and disrupting Florida’s delicate ecology during the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010.

BP’s fines are expected to range from $5 billion to $21 billion, and most of the money would go toward restoring the marshes, fishing industry and oil-damaged businesses and resources along the Gulf Coast. But environmental leaders estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars could be devoted to ecological projects all the way down to South Florida.

They’re not just dreaming.

Last month, Congress passed a bill that will steer 80 percent of any fine money to Florida and other Gulf Coast states. And while the Florida Legislature passed a law last year that says 75 percent of the state’s share must be devoted to the oil-damaged counties along its northwest coast, the rest can be spent on ecological restoration elsewhere.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force last month that the BP money would provide significant funding for conservation and that he considers the Everglades “a great example for the work that we do for conservation and for jobs.”

Salazar’s encouraging words and the tantalizing prospect of a giant pot of restoration money prompted environmentalists to start drawing up proposals designed to buffer the coast from future oil spills and to clean and store water that now rushes out to sea. These proposals will focus on Florida’s west coast but affect the entire Everglades watershed and potentially free up other federal and state money for projects in South and Central Florida.

The pie is potentially so huge that even a small slice would make a major impact on the re-plumbing work in the ‘Glades.

“This is really the largest source of funding for ecological restoration in the history of the world,” said David White of St. Petersburg, director of the Gulf restoration campaign for the National Wildlife Federation. “This is a big deal for the ecology for the Gulf of Mexico and by extension the Everglades system, which is part of that ecology.”

BP and its contractors are trying to settle a federal court case in New Orleans accusing them of violating the Oil Pollution Act – which is guided by standards set by the Clean Water Act – when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010 and spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf.

Fines under the law would amount to $1,300 per barrel if the companies are guilty of simple negligence — or $4,300 per barrel if they are guilty of gross negligence.

Environmentalists say a national commission co-chaired by former Florida U.S. Sen. and Gov. Bob Graham that investigated the disaster essentially established gross negligence, prompting them to think the total fines will reach as high as $21 billion.

A sweeping transportation bill passed by Congress on June 29 included legislation known as The Restore Act, which says 80 percent of BP’s eventual fine payments must go to the five Gulf states – Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas – most affected by the spill.

The Restore Act also established a formula for distributing the money:

Pot One: 35 percent – as much as $7.35 billion — to be divided equally among the Gulf states, or 7 percent (nearly $1.5 billion) for each. The 2011 Florida law says 75 percent of the state’s share of this pot — $1.1 billion — must go to eight hard-hit Gulf counties, and 25 percent can go to the rest. The still works out to $367 million.

Pot Two: 30 percent – up to $6.3 billion — to be distributed by a federal-state ecosystem restoration council comprised of six federal members and five state members.

Pot Three: 30 percent to pay for state proposals for environmental restoration and economic recovery work. These plans must be approved by the federal-state council.

Pot Four: 5 percent — just over $1 billion — to ecosystem monitoring and fisheries work administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and scientific Centers of Excellence in each Gulf state.

Money for South or Central Florida projects potentially could come from any of these pots. The council is expected to give priority to plans that promise lasting protection for the Gulf and the coastline against future spills.

These could be new proposals, but “shovel-ready projects” already designed and studied for their environmental impact – including much of the work surrounding the Everglades – could have an advantage.

Audubon of Florida, which pushed hard for passage of the Restore Act, is considering making proposals that would clean polluted water now channeled into the Gulf and store and release it when needed to nurture the Everglades.

“That would put one less stress on Lake Okeechobee, which helps everybody in South Florida,” said Julie Hill-Gabriel, director of Everglades policy at Audubon of Florida.

Southeast Florida is tied to the Gulf by the Loop Current, which brings water – and potentially an oil slick — around the Florida Keys and up to the shores of Broward and Palm Beach counties. The Everglades watershed is also interrelated, so that work along the west coast indirectly affects water projects closer to the east coast.

Using oil money in the western Everglades might allow more federal and state restoration funding to be devoted to the central and eastern Everglades.

The money could eclipse any one year’s federal appropriation for Everglades restoration, usually less than $200 million. The oil money would come at no expense to taxpayers, and it would not need to be matched by the state.

“This thing has statewide impact,” said Jay Liles, policy consultant for the Florida Wildlife Federation in Tallahassee. “It mostly affects the west coast, but nobody needs to exclude any of these ideas. It just has to have a nexus to the Gulf.”

Wgibson@Tribune.com or 202-824-8256

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Louisiana won’t get as much in Gulf oil spill fines as officials hoped
Published: Sunday, July 08, 2012, 6:40 AM
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune

A close reading of the conference committee report outlining the compromise Restore Act approved by Congress last week shows that Louisiana won’t get as many billions in Clean Water Act fines as state leaders had hoped. Compromise language awards other states larger shares than Louisiana officials believe they deserve.

The compromise, approved as part of a wide-ranging transportation and highways funding bill and signed into law by President Barack Obama on Friday, will deliver to Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states 80 percent of any Clean Water Act fines paid by BP and other parties responsible for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The total fines could range from $5 billion to $21 billion, based on whether BP and others are found to be grossly negligent.
A year ago, Gov. Bobby Jindal said federal statistics showed coastal Louisiana had 92 percent of the shoreline that was heavily and moderately oiled by the spill. In addition, most injured, oiled and dead birds, mammals, fish and other wildlife were found off Louisiana’s coast.

The congressional compromise divides the money into three large pots, with 35 percent split equally among all five Gulf states and their coastal parishes and counties as outlined in state restoration plans; 30 percent distributed to states based on the spill’s impact along the coastline; and 30 percent to be spent on larger projects approved by a new Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, made up of one representative from each of the five coastal states and six federal agencies: Interior, Army, Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture and Homeland Security. The council will be chaired by one of the federal representatives, selected by a majority vote of the state representatives. The last 5 percent will be used to set up two new study programs.

Within the individual pots, the breakdown of which states get how much money is complex and still difficult to divine in some cases. Louisiana’s share of the state allocation pot will give the state government 4.9 percent of all the fine money BP and others pay, with the state’s 20 “coastal zone” parishes splitting another 2.1 percent. That share is based on a formula that awards more to parishes with more oiled shoreline and larger populations.

It’s still unclear how much money the state will get from the 30 percent of the fine money included in the second pot, the “oil spill restoration impact” allocation. Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority chairman Garret Graves expects Louisiana will receive the largest share based on the amount of its coast that was oiled. But 20 percent of the formula will be based on the population of coastal counties bordering the Gulf, which could favor Florida. Each state is guaranteed at least 5 percent of the money in the pot.

The third pot of money will set up the new Gulf council and implement a new comprehensive plan for natural resource restoration of the entire Gulf coast. That plan must look first to projects that have already been authorized, but not implemented, and which, if implemented quickly, would restore and protect coastal resources. The plan must be approved by the council chair and a majority of the state members.

Again, Louisiana is likely to benefit from this language, as a variety of federal and state restoration projects already are authorized along the state’s coast, but construction on them has not yet started.

“The council is directed to look at larger watershed-type investments,” Graves said. “If the priorities are applied appropriately, they’ll recognize that investments in Louisiana benefit the entire Gulf of Mexico: the health of Louisiana’s marshes, the health of Louisiana’s estuaries, and the fact that up to 90 percent of the freshwater that enters the Gulf comes from Louisiana rivers.”

The council’s draft plan is supposed to be published in 180 days, and is required to incorporate the findings of a coastal plan adopted by the President’s Gulf Coast Restoration Task Force in 2011. The final version of the plan is supposed to be approved within 12 months.

States will be required to adopt their own comprehensive plans outlining how their share of the money in the first pot will be spent, similar to the updated coastal master plan approved earlier this year by the Louisiana Legislature. Louisiana’s plan, however, may have to be updated to include infrastructure, economic development or seafood-promotion projects that were beyond the scope of its coastal protection and restoration mandates.

The state plans must be approved by the state representative of the Gulf council and its chair, but not by other states.
The law also requires Louisiana parishes to adopt a comprehensive land use plan and a separate plan outlining how they will spend the money. Only 10 of the 20 eligible coastal zone parishes have adopted such plans, including New Orleans and Jefferson, St. Charles and St. James parishes in this area. Plans are under development in St. Bernard, St. James, St. John the Baptist and Plaquemines parishes. The law does not require land-use plans for counties in other states.

State, parish and county projects eligible for funding include:
• Restoration and protection of natural resources, including marine and wildlife habitats, beaches and coastal wetlands; otherwise mitigating damage to natural resources; and implementing a federally approved conservation management plan, including fisheries monitoring.
• Workforce development and job creation.
• Improvements to state parks located in coastal areas affected by the spill.
• Infrastructure projects benefitting the economy or ecological resources, including port infrastructure.
• Coastal flood protection and related infrastructure.
• Activities to promote tourism and seafood, including recreational fishing and consumption of seafood harvested from the region.
States, parishes and counties will be allowed to give preference to local businesses in awarding contracts for projects. And they’ll be able to use the money as the state or local match for various federal projects, such as the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane levee now being built around Houma.

The law also sets aside 2.5 percent of the fine money to create a new Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Science, Observation, Monitoring and Technology Program. It will be under the direction of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with assistance from the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The new agency’s duties will include research and monitoring in both Gulf and coastal waters, including assessment of fisheries and development of pilot programs to generate new data sources and programs to reduce exploitation of spawning fish. Another 2.5 percent of the money will be split equally among the five Gulf states to finance “Centers of Excellence Research” grants to universities and other non-governmental agencies in Gulf states that will conduct research on a variety of coastal and deepwater issues, including wildlife, habitat, sustainable land use, offshore energy development, economic and commercial development.

Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3327.
© 2012 NOLA.com.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.bradenton.com/2012/07/08/4107089/new-drilling-off-cuba-may-pose.html

Bradenton Herald: New drilling off Cuba may pose more risk to Florida
Published: July 8, 2012

By DAVID GOODHUE – The Keys Reporter
New oil drilling expected to begin offshore of Cuba at the end of the summer is at least 50 miles farther away from Key West than a well that came up dry in May.

But industry watchers say the drilling sites’ location in the Gulf of Mexico pose more of an environmental threat to the Keys and other coastal areas of the U.S. than did the well that was only 70 miles away from Key West in the Florida Straits.

“National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration models of spill scenarios indicate the obvious: The further west from the Keys, the greater the potential exposure of the Keys and western Florida to oil reaching the U.S. coast. This is much like NOAA’s hurricane prediction cone,” said Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors.

Spanish oil company Repsol was the first of several international firms to begin drilling the waters off Cuba for oil on a Chinese-built, Italian-owned giant semi-submersible rig called the Scarabeo 9. The rig was built with less than 10 percent of its parts made in the United States, meaning companies that work on it are not violating the 52-year-old U.S.-imposed trade embargo against Cuba.

The Scarabeo’s pending arrival angered environmentalists and tourism officials who were worried what a massive oil spill would do to coastal states’ environment and economy. It also angered critics of Cuba, who were concerned a big oil find would make the small Communist island a major energy exporter.

But not only did Repsol not find enough oil to continue its $100 million operation, the company also willingly let U.S. inspectors board the rig when it was in Trinidad and Tobago before it arrived in Cuban waters. Repsol also conducted tabletop exercises with U.S. authorities in Trinidad and Tobago on how to coordinate an oil spill response and containment plan in case of an oil well blowout, said Jorge Piñon, a research fellow at the University of Texas’ Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy.

Malaysian company Petronas is now using the rig in partnership with Gazprom,
from Russia. That lease is scheduled to end at the end of this month, the Associated Press reported.

But the next company to use the Scarabeo 9 is Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA. PDVSA is a state-owned company run by the government of Hugo Chavez, which has a hostile relationship with the United States.

Piñon said the U.S. is not likely to enjoy the same cooperation with PDVSA as it did when dealing with Repsol. Petronas is also a state-owned company. Piñon doubts members of the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies have the same open line of communication with its representatives as they had with Repsol managers. He also doubts the same types of contingency plans in place between the Coast Guard and Repsol exist with Petronas, or will be made with PDVSA.

“Repsol was a publicly traded company, so we expected them to behave the way they did. Both Petronas and PDVSA are national, state-owned oil companies,” Piñon said. “What role would sovereign immunity play in their response and financial compensation to Florida residents in the event of an oil spill?”

Cuba believes its coastal waters in the Florida Straits and the Gulf of Mexico contain up to 20 billion barrels of oil. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates a much more conservative 5 billion barrels.

Drilling for oil there is particularly risky because wells are believed to be up to 6,000 feet below the ocean. The British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, the worst in U.S. history, happened at 5,000 feet below the ocean surface.

Meanwhile, on the northeastern coast of Cuba, another Russian company, Zarubezhneft, is expected to start drilling for oil in about 1,200 feet of water near the maritime border with the Bahamas. That operation is scheduled to begin in November on a Norwegian-Cypriot-owned rig called the Songa Mercur.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/07/08/4107089/new-drilling-off-cuba-may-pose.html#storylink=cpy

____________

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120708/business/business6.html

The Gleaner Jamaica: Researchers Map Marine Life Ahead Of Oil Exploration
Published: Sunday | July 8, 2012

The headquarters of Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, the state agency leading the hunt for offshore oil.-File

Jamaica in preparation for oil drilling has conducted a marine life survey with its closest southern neighbour, Colombia.

The survey findings will help to prevent damage to marine life when drilling and possible oil production begins within two years.

“The survey has provided a comprehensive view of the existing ecosystem in the Joint Regime Area which will inform what mitigation measures should be taken whenever development activity is undertaken,” said Dr Gavin Gunter, senior geologist at Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) .

“By knowing what exists and by understanding the various factors operating in the environment, we can pursue development in a manner that preserves the ecosystem,” Gunter told Sunday Business.

The findings of survey were compiled and presented in April 2012 from exploration research done in 2011.

Oil is already mined around much of Colombia’s coast, which is actually closer to Jamaica than the island is to Miami, Florida.

Canada-based Sagres Energy plans to drill for oil offshore Jamaica within two years following its subsidiary Rainville Energy Corporation mapping an area believed to contain the equivalent of three billion barrels of oil.

Oil at that level would rank Jamaica as holding the 30th-largest oil reserves – above Yemen, the United Kingdom and some African nations, according to data from the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Canada rank as the top three nations with oil reserves.

Sagres must drill by November 2014 as a condition of its licence with the PCJ.

The Jamaica/Colombia Environ-mental Baseline Survey was the first formal joint exercise between the two countries in the Joint Regime Area, which was established under the Maritime Delimitation Treaty signed in 1993.

The survey was funded by Colombia’s hydrocarbons agency – the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH).

The Joint Regime Area extends south of Jamaica’s Pedro Cays to the maritime space of Colombia, covers an area that includes the Alice Shoal (Bajo Alicia) and borders the Colombian territories of Serranilla Bank (Banco Serranilla) and New Bank (Bajo Nuevo).

“The areas have been found to have complex biological communities with an abundance of fish, sponge, macroalgae, coral and octocoral groups and might also contain important mineral resources,” said PCJ in a statement issued last week.

The baseline survey details geomorphology and structural attributes of the areas; composition, location and extension of ecosystems and ecological units; composition and distribution of the main reef communities; threatened marine species; and signs of reef deterioration. The participating researchers included scientists from Colombia’s Environmental Studies Institute, (INVEMAR), the Omacha Foundation, an expert in marine mammals, and, a geologist assigned by the PCJ.

business@gleanerjm.com

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter
Published: Thursday, July 5, 2012

This is only the latest in a string of negative environmental consequences due to fracking. The inordinate amount of fresh water used is also a big concern. I think fracking should be outlawed. DV

What may be the first class-action suit against oil and gas companies for unleashing earthquakes is working its way through the federal courts in Arkansas.

The suit stems from a “swarm” of earthquakes as strong as magnitude 4.7 that rattled the northern part of the state. The quakes prompted state officials last summer to ban drilling waste disposal wells in a 1,150-square-mile area. Four wells ceased operations. The people who brought the suits and their attorneys say the companies knew about the risk of earthquakes from their operations but did not do enough to prevent them. “Defendants, experienced in these operations, were well aware of the connection between injection wells and seismic activity, and acted in disregard of these facts,” says the suit, filed by the Little Rock class-action firm Emerson Poynter LLP on behalf of Stephen Hearn and several other residents of Faulkner County, Ark.

The suit says that the companies’ “ultrahazardous” actions have made residents fear for their safety and caused the cost of earthquake insurance to skyrocket. The suit names subsidiaries of Chesapeake Energy Corp., which operated two of the wells, and BHP Billiton, which acquired the wells from Chesapeake as part of a larger purchase in 2011. Spokesmen for the two companies declined comment, but each has filed blanket denials with the court.

A smaller well owner, Deep Six Water Disposal Services of Oklahoma, was dismissed from the case last week. Another well owner, Clarita Operating of Little Rock, filed for bankruptcy after the first suits were filed. Several class-action suits have been consolidated into the case under Hearn’s name. The case is currently in discovery and is scheduled for trial in March 2014. In a brief email exchange with EnergyWire, lead attorney Scott Poynter said he was not familiar with any other suits against drillers for causing earthquakes with disposal wells.

There is no federal law against causing earthquakes, but the suit alleges that the quakes were caused by negligence, amounted to trespassing and created a public nuisance (EnergyWire, June 18). Before two of the wells stopped operating in the spring of 2011, there were 85 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or higher. Since the shutdown there have been fewer quakes, according to the state Geological Survey. The state’s moratorium was based in part on the finding of University of Memphis seismologist Steve Horton, who said continued injection would risk a damaging earthquake in the area. He later published findings linking the earthquakes to drilling-waste wells.

The earthquakes were not linked to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” But fracturing creates millions of gallons of briny, toxic wastewater that drillers must eventually dispose of, usually by injecting it into the type of wells that are at the heart of the case. Advances in fracturing technology that involve blasting millions of gallons of water into production wells have led to a surge in gas production in shale formations such as Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale.

It is well understood among scientists that injecting wastewater underground — whether from energy production or something else — can lubricate faults and create earthquakes. But there are about 40,000 oil and gas disposal wells in the country, and only a few have been linked to earthquakes. There has never been a death or serious injury from such a quake. State officials in Ohio also shut down several waste injection wells earlier this year after linking a magnitude-4.0 quake and a host of smaller ones to a well in Youngstown.

Scientists are investigating whether other earthquakes in Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas are linked to drilling activities such as waste injection. Seismologists at the U.S. Geological Survey have suggested that some of those quakes, along with the Arkansas swarm, are part of a “remarkable” increase in the number of earthquakes in the middle of the country that is “almost certainly man-made” and likely linked to oil and gas operations (EnergyWire, March 29).

Special thanks to Richard Charter