http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/04/bill-nelsons-camp-calls-connie-mack-out-for-oil-drilling-flip-flop.html

Posted by Marc Caputo at 4:37 PM on Friday, Apr. 6 in Bill Nelson, Connie Mack | Permalink

Sen. Bill Nelson’s adviser, Dan McLaughlin, declined all day and night to comment on yesterday’s story about challenger Connie Mack’s pipeline-petition plan, but the Republican’s last quote in the story provoked the Democrat to comment in an email with the headline “come on …”:

Nelson is staunchly opposed to offshore drilling … . Mack has a different view.
“I have always said that I would be for drilling,” Mack said. “But I think that’s an issue the state should have a say in – in determining how far it’s going to be off the coast of Florida. We ought to allow the state to have a say in that decision.”

Previous Mack quotes:

“We all understand that America must find new sources of energy. But drilling off Florida’s sensitive coast won’t solve the nation’s current energy challenges and it won’t put us on a path toward achieving energy independence.”

“Make no mistake, drilling for oil and gas off Florida’s fragile coastline is a risky scheme that jeopardizes our environment and our economy. It won’t reduce the price at the pump and it won’t reduce our dependency on foreign oil. That’s why the 285-mile buffer has been in place for years and why it should remain intact for many more years to come.

“I’m pleased that the House has tabled the reckless plan to open Florida’s coastline to offshore drilling. This risky scheme would have established a complex process for Florida to try to prevent drilling and it was riddled with loopholes that could have allowed drilling to take place just miles from our shore. While this victory is important for our economy and our environment, it is merely one in the larger battle to protect our fragile coast. Drilling proponents won’t stop here and neither will we. Congress needs to take real action to ban drilling off our shore and I look forward to working with my colleagues to do just that.”

“All of us want to ensure that the United States has the energy supplies we need now and in the future, and Congress needs to take real steps to help reduce the sky-high gas prices that are hurting millions of hardworking families. But allowing drilling off Florida’s pristine coastline won’t reduce America’s pain at the pump. Instead of taking steps that will expose Florida’s fragile environment and our economy to severe and irreparable harm, we would be better served by expanding America’s refining capabilities, investing in new energy technologies, furthering commercial and consumer adoption of more energy efficient products, and increasing conservation.”

“We are writing to express our grave concern regarding legislative efforts to weaken the existing offshore drilling ban off Florida’s fragile coastline. As you know, the existing ban, which has had strong bi-partisan support, was put in place to protect Florida’s highly fragile ecosystem. Eliminating the drilling ban poses a clear danger to our environment and an economy that are inextricably linked.

Special thanks to Richard Charter.

http://www.keysnet.com/2012/04/07/437124/keys-oil-spill-drill-draws-scores.html

By KEVIN WADLOW
kwadlow@keynoter.com
Posted – Saturday, April 07, 2012 10:30 AM EDT

A week before the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Florida Keys emergency planners gather to confront a second oil spill.

Fortunately, the spill this coming Thursday is entirely theoretical. The response will be confined to a tabletop preparation exercise in Key West that tests an updated contingency plan.

“Our team of local planners and stakeholders have worked very hard this past year to update our area contingency plan to include local and regional lessons learned after the Deepwater Horizon disaster,” said Capt. Pat DeQuattro, commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West.

“I’m eager for this exercise to test our new plans and to include additional feedback from our local partner agencies,” said DeQuattro, designated as the federal government’s on-scene coordinator for a major spill near the Keys.

During the planning exercise, responders will outline plans to deal with an imagined oil leak from a deepwater drilling platform in the Florida Straits.
Repsol, a Spanish oil company, now is using the Scarabeo 9 drilling platform to search for oil reserves in offshore of Cuba — in waters about 70 miles from Key West.

Given the Keys’ near-miss in the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the spring of 2010, the prospect of drilling for oil in waters that pull the Gulf Stream current past South Florida creates uncertainty among oceanic advocates.

The BP Deepwater Horizon spill spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil — more than 200 million gallons — into the northern Gulf of Mexico after the oil rig exploded, burned and sank on April 20, 2010. Eleven men on it died.
Oil flowed from the sea floor about a mile down for nearly three months until the spill was capped July 15.

Although some government forecasts predicted the massive spill was likely to reach the Keys, favorable oceanic currents apparently kept any Deepwater Horizon oil from reaching Florida Keys waters. However, concern about oceanic pollution devastated the Keys tourism in the 2010 summer months.

During the 2010 spill, officials discovered that Keys response plans and equipment were outdated or inadequate to handle a large-scale spill.

Thursday’s drill organized by the Coast Guard in Key West will test the updated plan.

In addition to several units from the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, the Key West exercise will include the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Key West city offices and police department, commercial fishermen, other municipalities and numerous animal-rescue organizations including the Turtle Hospital, Dolphin Research Center and bird-rescue staff.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2012/04/bp_atlantis_whistleblower_alle_1.html

Times-Picayune

Published: Thursday, April 05, 2012, 11:42 AM Updated: Thursday, April 05, 2012, 11:46 AM
By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune

A whistleblower who has complained for years that BP didn’t maintain proper engineering documents aboard its Atlantis oil platform, in violation of federal regulations, has now additionally claimed that BP lied to the government about whether the design of most of the platform hull was ever approved by registered engineers. Whistleblower Kenneth Abbott has filed a motion for summary judgment against BP in federal court in Houston.

He argues that BP made false claims in 2002 when it certified to the federal Minerals Management Service that registered engineers had approved Atlantis’ design. Because of that, he contends that BP owes the U.S. the full value of the Atlantis oil field, which it leases from the federal government.

Abbott’s lawsuit garnered national attention in 2010, after BP’s nearby Macondo well blew out, killing 11 aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and starting the worst accidental offshore oil spill in history.

Abbott served as a BP contractor on Atlantis, a $2 billion oil-and-gas production rig 190 miles south of New Orleans, when he discovered the required documentation was missing. He reported to a BP ombudsman in 2009 that the rig didn’t maintain required “as-built” drawings of the systems and structures on the rig.

The ombudsman, retired federal Judge Stanley Sporkin, later substantiated Abbott’s complaints. Abbott’s latest filing quotes from Sporkin’s confidential report, which states that BP engineers grew “annoyed” at Abbott in December 2008 when he kept insisting that they follow the regulations and transfer as-built drawings to the platform.

A report last year by MMS’ successor agency, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, stated that the lack of as-built drawings onboard did not cause any immediate threat to safety. Abbott has argued otherwise in the lawsuit.

Abbott filed suit in 2009, contending the lack of drawings made operations unsafe, and against MMS for failing to enforce its regulations. The idea behind his case got a jolt when President Barack Obama said in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and Gulf oil spill that the MMS had a “cozy relationship” with the industry it was supposed to regulate.

The environmental group Food and Water Watch joined in Abbott’s lawsuit in Houston, which alleges violations of the False Claims Act.

Based on documents gathered during discovery for the case, Abbott claims that 95 percent of the “as-built” engineering drawings used to build the platform were never approved by licensed engineers. While BP sought and received a special approval from MMS to use unstamped designs from a Swedish firm, it never asked for such a waiver for the vast majority of the designs of major components by a Korean shipbuilding company.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.newsherald.com/news/drilling-101686-federal-agency.html

Panama City, Florida

April 04, 2012 07:00:41 PM

RANDAL YAKEY / News Herald Writer
@ryakey
Get involved:
Comments and opinions on this issue can be emailed to boemegomeis@BOEM.gov

PANAMA CITY BEACH – “Drill, baby, drill” may be coming to a coastal area near you.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held two public hearings Wednesday on the potential drilling for oil about 125 miles south of Pensacola. The triangular area encompasses about 657,905 acres and could be developed predominantly for oil extraction but would allow for natural gas exploration, as well.

A three-member panel took questions Wednesday from the public at the Wyndam Bay Point Resort.

Pam Anderson, of Capt. Anderson’s Marina, came before the panel to express concerns regarding how artificial reefs and the fishing industry would be impacted.

“We don’t want this in our backyard,” she said. Capt. Anderson’s Marina specializes in deep-sea fishing excursions, dolphin tours and private charters.

Even though there was a sparse crowd on hand for the afternoon session, that didn’t stop local John Dunaway from telling the panel of his concerns.

“I have lived in Bay County for the past 35 years,” Dunaway said. “The primary reason people come to this area is the white beaches. Anything that would impact those beaches would have a detrimental effect.”

Dunaway reminded those in attendance that oil well leases proposed for the Florida coast are closer to the beaches of Bay County than the Deepwater Horizon, which ruptured, exploded and then sank in April 2010, causing a massive oil spill.

“We did not have a direct impact from the last spill, but the pure perception from visitors to our beaches and the Southeast that we had a problem caused the (tourist) industry great harm,” Dunaway said.

Caryl Fagot, public affairs specialist for the BOEM, explained there is an area along the “military line,” which runs about 125 south of Pensacola, which has two parcels of property for lease. Two other areas are already under lease.

“We operate on a specific five-year plan,” Fagot said. “The plan we have been operating on was from 2007 to mid-2012. In that plan there were already lease sales in that area.

“There is no production in that area and there is no drilling in that area,” Fagot said. “In the new program, which we are working on for mid-2012 to 2017, we are proposing two more sales in this eastern planning area.”

Whether drilling begins in the area would depend on demand and input from the community, Fagot said.

The eastern planning area, which includes an area south of Pensacola to the western coast of Florida, includes areas where the Department of Defense (DoD) conducts major military exercises.

President of the Bay Defense Alliance Tom Neubauer said he did not want the potential drilling to interfere with the DoD’s needs in the Gulf.

“The Gulf test range, which is essentially everything east of the military mission line, which comes down from Pensacola into the Gulf of Mexico, is really essential to nine bases in Northwest Florida,” Neubauer said. “Most of those bases do testing and training, research and development in the Gulf of Mexico. Š Drilling in those areas would impair those missions.”

According to the BOEM, there currently are no plans to drill in the “Gulf test range area.” But Neubauer came out to make sure that was the case.

Neubauer also was concerned about boat traffic to the drilling sites and how that traffic would have an impact on the military mission in the Gulf.

BOEM has issued a Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 that would make more than 75 percent of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas estimated on the Outer Continental Shelf available for development.

Wednesday’s meeting was one in a series of public hearings being held this week along the Gulf Coast. Comments at the meetings will be used in preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for the two proposed oil and gas lease sales.

Planning for an Environmental Impact Statement does not mean a final decision has been made about their inclusion in the leasing program for 2012-2017, BOEM officials noted.

Read more: http://www.newsherald.com/articles/drilling-101686-federal-agency.html#ixzz1r8SlruBR

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/31/dolphins-sick-deepwater-oil-spill

New studies show impact of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster on dolphins and other marine wildlife may be far worse than feared

Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 31 March 2012 12.15 BST

A new study of dolphins living close to the site of North America’s worst ever oil spill – the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe two years ago – has established serious health problems afflicting the marine mammals.

The report, commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], found that many of the 32 dolphins studied were underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems.

More than 200m gallons of crude oil flowed from the well after a series of explosions on 20 April 2010, which killed 11 workers. The spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico and its coastline in what President Barack Obama called America’s worst environmental disaster.

The research follows the publication of several scientific studies into insect populations on the nearby Gulf coastline and into the health of deepwater coral populations, which all suggest that the environmental impact of the five-month long spill may have been far worse than previously appreciated.

Another study confirmed that zooplankton – the microscopic organisms at the bottom of the ocean food chain – had also been contaminated with oil. Indeed, photographs issued last month of wetland coastal areas show continued contamination, with some areas still devoid of vegetation.

The study of the dolphins in Barataria Bay, off the coast of Louisiana, followed two years in which the number of dead dolphins
found stranded on the coast close to the spill had dramatically increased. Although all but one of the 32 dolphins were still alive when the study ended, lead researcher Lori Schwacke said survival prospects for many were grim, adding that the hormone deficiency – while not definitively linked to the oil spill – was “consistent with oil exposure to other mammals”.

Schwacke told a Colorado based-publication last week: “This was truly an unprecedented event – there was little existing data that would indicate what effects might be seen specifically in dolphins – or other cetaceans – exposed to oil for a prolonged period of time.”

The NOAA study has been reported at the same time as two other studies suggesting that the long-term environmental effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill may have been far more profound than previously thought.

A study of deep ocean corals seven miles from the spill source jointly funded by the NOAA and BP has found dead and dying corals coated “in brown gunk”. Deepwater corals are not usually affected in oil spills, but the depth and temperatures involved in the spill appear to have been responsible for creating plumes of oil particles deep under the ocean surface, which are blamed for the unprecedented damage.

Charles Fisher, one of the scientists who jointly described the impact as unprecedented, said he believed the colony had been contaminated by a plume from the ruptured well which would have affected other organisms. “The corals are long-living and don’t move. That is why we were able to identify the damage but you would have expected it to have had an impact on other larger animals that were exposed to it.”

Chemical analysis of oil found on the dying coral showed that it came from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

The latest surveys of the damage to the marine environment come amid continued legal wrangling between the US and BP over the bill for the clean-up. BP said the US government was withholding evidence that would show the oil spill from the well in the Gulf of Mexico was smaller than claimed. Last week BP, which has set aside $37bn (£23bn) to pay for costs associated with the disaster, went to court in Louisiana to demand access to thousands of documents that it says the Obama administration is suppressing.

The US government is still pursuing a case against BP despite a deal the company reached at the beginning of March with the largest group of private claimants. That $7.8bn deal, however, does not address “significant damages” to the environment after the spill for which BP has not admitted liability. And it has not only been the immediate marine environment that has been affected. A study of insect populations in the coastal marshes affected by the catastrophe has also identified significant impact.

Linda Hooper-Bui of Louisiana State University found that some kinds of insect and spider were far less numerous than before. “Every single time we go out there, the Pollyanna part of me thinks, ‘Now we’re going to measure recovery’,” she said. “Then I get out there and say: ‘Whaaat?'” She had expected that one group of arthropods might be hit hard while others recovered, but her work, still incomplete, shows a large downturn among many kinds. “We never thought it would be this big, this widespread,” she said.

For its part BP has claimed in a recent statement that it has worked hard to fulfil its responsibility to clean up after the spill. “From the beginning, BP stepped up to meet our obligations to the communities in the Gulf Coast region, and we’ve worked hard to deliver on that commitment for nearly two years,” BP chief executive Bob Dudley declared recently.

Special thanks to Richard Charter