Tag Archives: Interior Department
Offshore Wind Electrical Substations; The Secret, Silent Killers by Jim Lovgren
The marine mammal strandings that are taking place almost everyday along the US east coast are the most visible consequence of the Biden administration’s reckless disregard of all environmental safeguards that had been carefully crafted since the environmental movement started in the 1960’s. Embarrassingly, the cowards at the National Marine Fishery Service have stood by and watched as research vessels have been performing geologic surveys with high powered Sonar, and Seismic devises before they had their incidental take permits issued. They have also authorized over 100,000 level B takes of marine mammals, and that’s just for a few projects, as they fully expect the offshore wind factories to cause the extinction of the critically endangered Northern Right Whale. Just ask Sean Hayes, from the NMFS protected species department, whose observations were ignored by BOEM, hence an ESA violation. >click to read< 11:34
California Offshore Wind Projects Face Hurdles as Pressure Groups, Industry Interests Weigh In
As the Biden administration plans for the country’s first West Coast offshore wind turbines, interests ranging from commercial fishing fleets to powerful environmental groups are complicating the road ahead for the California projects. Some fishermen are worried about losing access to swaths of rich fishing grounds, where they would have to stop towing nets that could get caught on underwater cables. Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, said offshore wind power projects threaten an industry that also must deal with depleted fish stocks and soaring coastal real-estate prices. “We’re struggling to make sure that people understand that, just because you can’t see it, that doesn’t mean it’s not having an impact,” she said. There is early discussion about creating fishing compensation funds, similar to ones created by East Coast projects for financial losses, “but the industry doesn’t want to be bought out,” she said. >click to read< 08:08
Joel Dejean: Turn the Tide Against the Texas Gulf Wind Farms
The Biden Administration announced last week that the first offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico will be positioned off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. The first selected area was described approvingly in the July 22 issue of The Texas Tribune by Mitchell Ferman. It is “24 nautical miles off the coast of Galveston, covering 546,645 acres, bigger than the city of Houston, with the potential to power 2.3 million homes, according to the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.” The other project, praised in Houston Chronicle headlines, will be near Port Arthur [Texas] covering 188,023 acres, 56 miles offshore, with power potential estimated at 799,000 homes. Public hearings are to start in August. Two issues come immediately to mind. First, in the description of both projects, the phrase ”potential to power” is used. The figures given represent 100% potential productive capacity, but the wind usually delivers only 30%, and often even less. >click to read< 11:25
Offshore wind farm plans collide with fishing industry concerns off Carolina coast
The Biden administration’s plans to develop wind power off the East Coast are drawing concerns from the fishing industry, in the latest example of climate policy colliding with the livelihood of coastal businesses. Interior officials say they are aware of the concerns and are working on regulatory guidance that would lay out how wind farm developers can minimize harm to commercial and recreational fishing, while compensating businesses for losses. Wednesday’s auction is moving forward before officials finish that work. More lease sales are planned in the next two years for regions off the coast of California, the central Atlantic region and in the Gulf of Mexico. Without federal guidance, offshore wind developers have carved out their own settlements with local fishing groups. “Saddling project proponents with the costs of fisheries compensation would almost certainly have an adverse impact on ratepayers and/or project finance,” association officials said in a January letter to U.S. officials. >click to read< 14:50
Biden plans to expand offshore wind farms to all US coasts
The Biden administration has unveiled plans to expand offshore wind energy farms in a move that could see turbines built along much of the US coastline.,,, The plan is expected to meet a backlash from some coastal and fishing communities, and it needs approval from state, local and environmental groups before any construction begins. Commercial fishing companies have argued such offshore wind projects would make it difficult to harvest valuable seafood species, like lobsters. Some conservation groups also fear the large turbines will kill thousands of birds and affect marine life. >click to read< 08:31
Trump’s Offshore Oil Ban includes a halt to Offshore Wind Farms
President Donald Trump’s decision to rule out energy development along the coasts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas will bar not just offshore oil and gas drilling — but coastal wind farms too. The broad reach of Trump’s recent orders, which was confirmed by the Interior Department agency that oversees offshore energy development, comes as renewable developers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars snapping up the rights to build wind farms along the U.S. East Coast.,, The approach is being condemned by both oil drilling and wind energy advocates. Blow me. >click to read< 09:13
Vineyard Wind: delayed project reveals bluster in US’s offshore wind ambitions
The recent decision by the Interior Department to hit the pause button on plans to build the first major US offshore windfarm off the Massachusetts coast means the project now hangs in the balance. Amid federal agency infighting, does the country risk squandering a vital resource of clean energy? We investigate. The waiting game: could Vineyard Wind be the new Cape Wind? >click to read< 16:09
Interior Department Considers Cable Plan to Wire Ocean Floor for Wind Farms Off NJ-NY Coast
As New Jersey and New York governors press for energy from giant wind turbines along the Atlantic coast and in the New York Bight, the question of how to best get the power to the shore has resulted in a call for public comment. Anbaric Development Partners LLC has applied to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for a right-of-way to construct a New York and New Jersey Ocean Grid. According to the application, Ocean Grid is a proposed submarine system of cables approximately 185 nautical miles (213 statute miles) in length and including the construction of up to nine “offshore collector platforms,” or OCP. >click to read< 09:23
Booming wind industry’s big worry
Land-based turbines are rising by the thousands across America, from the remote Texas plains to farm towns of Iowa. And the U.S. wind boom now is expanding offshore, with big corporations planning $70 billion in investment for the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farms.,,, The Interior Department cited the surge in corporate interest for offshore wind projects in saying it wanted more study before moving forward. It directed Vineyard Wind to research the overall impact of the East Coast’s planned wind boom.,, Federal fisheries officials have been among the main bloc calling for more study, saying they need to know more about the impacts on ocean life. >click to read< 14:23
Opinion: Atlantic drilling issue dries up again, without lasting resolution
The curtain has come down on the latest of “to drill or not to drill in the Atlantic.” It ran two years, just a bit longer than the one before it in a series dating to the 1980s. The ending, as expected, was the same, since deepwater drilling in the Atlantic wouldn’t be profitable and is broadly opposed. A renewed federal effort begun in May 2017 to offer leases to drill for oil and natural gas off the East Coast was suspended indefinitely by the Trump administration. A similar push by the Obama administration ended with reinstatement of a temporary moratorium on drilling. Other than the presidents, most of the players remained the same. Opposition was led by state and local officials in both parties the length of the coast,,, >click to read<18:36
Ryan Zinke Is Leaving The Interior Department, Trump Tweets
Ryan Zinke is out as Secretary of the Interior. Zinke will be leaving the Trump administration at the end of the year; his successor is expected to be announced next week. On Saturday morning President Trump tweeted that Zinke is leaving after serving for almost two years. He said Zinke has accomplished much during his tenure, and thanked him for his service. Zinke’s departure comes after a tumultuous two years at the department, marked by mounting allegations of misconduct in office. He also faced the prospect of congressional probes after newly-elected Democrats take majority control of the House. >click to read<10:55
A 14-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico verges on becoming one of the worst in U.S. history
Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever. >click to read<13:06
Trump administration urged to avoid salmon protection rules
A group that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws. The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. The irrigators association is frustrated with court rulings it says favor fish over people, claiming the committee could end years of legal challenges over U.S. dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and bring stability for irrigators, power generators and other businesses that rely on the water. click here to read the story 18:12
Offshore exploration and drilling back on table for Georgia
The Trump administration announced earlier this month that it is moving forward on seismic surveys in the Atlantic Ocean, the first step toward offshore drilling in a region where it has been blocked for decades. The Interior Department plans to review six applications by energy companies that were rejected in January by the Obama administration. Local and state environmental groups as well as many coastal municipalities oppose the surveys, saying loud sounds from seismic air guns could hurt marine life. Sen. David Perdue, R-Georgia, and Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Savannah, remain in favor of seismic testing and offshore drilling. “With a vibrant commercial fishery industry and the only known calving ground for endangered North Atlantic right whales just off our coast, Georgians oppose seismic testing for offshore oil exploration and the risks it poses to our state’s wildlife, wild places, and quality of life,” said Alice Keyes, vice president for coastal conservation at Coastal Georgia-based One Hundred Miles. Click here to read the story 19:19
Feds may ease fish population goals for non native, salmon eating Striped Bass
A still-controversial 1992 law intended to boost California’s striped bass population can be scaled back, the Obama administration now believes. In a modest softening of the state’s polarized water debate, a top Interior Department official voiced sympathy Wednesday for a Republican-authored bill that would end the 1992 law’s stated goal of doubling the number of striped bass living in and around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. “It makes sense to remove the striped bass from the doubling goals,” said Tom Iseman, deputy assistant secretary for water and science, adding that “the striped bass is a predator of native species.” Read the rest here 09:30
Obama reverses course, won’t allow Atlantic coast oil drilling
The Obama administration is reversing course on opening Atlantic waters to a new generation of oil and gas drilling, after a revolt by environmentalists and coastal communities that said the activity threatened marine life, fishing and tourism along the East Coast. The proposed offshore leasing program to be released Tuesday eliminates the administration’s initial plan to auction off drilling rights in as many as 104 million acres of the mid- and south-Atlantic in 2021, according to an Interior Department official who requested anonymity because the plan wasn’t yet public. Read the rest here 14:10
Whistleblowers say Interior Department diverted $48 Million in Klamath Basin fish funds to farmers
The site of some of the fiercest environmental wars over water in recent years is now the subject of a federal investigation into millions of dollars that whistleblowers say were intended to secure water for drought-stricken fish but flowed instead to farmers and ranchers. Two biologists for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, which supplies farmers with irrigation water and farmland in the Klamath Project, became suspicious a little more than a year ago of a contract between the bureau and an organization called the Klamath Water and Power Agency,,, Read the rest here 12:17
Obama Proposes New Rules For Offshore Oil Wells – How about Observer Coverage??
The proposal Monday by the Interior Department builds on standards industry has set for so-called blowout preventers since the April 2010 disaster on the Deepwater Horizon rig, and establishes schedules for maintenance and repair. If adopted, the rules would mandate outside audits of equipment, require each device to have a backup shear to cut a pipe, and call for real-time monitoring onshore for heat and pressure at the well. Read the rest here 10:37
Follow that Oil Money Fueling Green Groups That Have Infiltrated The Agency’s That Regulate You To Death
Meet the conservation cash cartel of the uber-rich: the Environmental Grantmakers Association, This is the same EGA that emerged during the Senate confirmation hearings for Rhea Sun Suh, the Interior Department’s new head of national parks and the Fish and Wildlife Service — a veteran EGA member who invited colleagues to come visit her any time. <Read more here> 20:31
Drakes Bay Oyster Company weighing next steps in legal fight
Attorneys for Drakes Bay Oyster Company and the Interior Department are set to meet with a federal district judge Monday in Oakland to discuss the next steps in the case following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to consider the Marin County oyster farm’s appeal. Read more here 13:22
Drakes Bay oyster farm denied Supreme Court hearing
Oyster farmer Kevin Lunny’s reaction to what looked to others like the last legal gasp of his operation at punched right to the point: “It’s not over until the last oyster is shucked.” Read more here 08:20
Obama administration takes step toward allowing Atlantic Ocean drilling
The Obama administration forbids Atlantic Ocean drilling through 2017. An earlier version of President Obama’s five-year offshore drilling plan permitted such activity, but he excluded Atlantic drilling from the plan following the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more here 16:50
Injunction Denied for Bay Area Herring Fishing
Commercial fisherman in the Bay Area cannot gather spawning herring within a protected quarter-mile, a federal judge ruled, refusing to issue an injunction. U.S. officials informed Bay Area fisherman in November 2012 that fishing would not be allowed within one quarter of a mile offshore of the shoreline of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Read more@courthousenews 11:52
Editorial: Sound science? Maybe, but always read the fine print.
Spin is eternal. Always read the fine print. That’s the message that interested citizens should take from the Interior Department’s review of a scientific-integrity complaint by former Bureau of Reclamation official Paul Houser, a scientific-integrty officer who lost his job when he had the gall to do his job. continue reading Scientific integrity? It’s a fine slogan and guide, but it’s rarely the final word when it comes to government.
Greater Federal, State Roles Sought to Help Develop Offshore Wind Potential
More than two years after the Interior Department launched an initiative to speed up and simplify its permitting process, there are still no commercial-scale wind projects up and running in federal waters. Read more here
Lawmaker attacks oil companies’ ‘free’ drilling in gulf
Once upon a time, the price of oil was so low — dropping under $11 a barrel in late 1998 — that Congress agreed that big oil companies needed incentives to drill for oil in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. So in 1995 it ordered the Interior Department to waive royalties on virtually all of the oil and natural gas that would come out of wells drilled between 1996 and 2000. Read more
US orders Arctic drilling assessment after rig mishap. Is this the future for the East Coast?
The Interior Department on Tuesday ordered “an expedited, high-level assessment” of oil and gas activities in Alaska’s Arctic waters following a violent storm that drove Shell’s drilling rig, the Kulluk, aground last week and revived
debate over the company’s plans to explore for oil in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. “Developing America’s domestic energy sources is essential for reducing our dependence on foreign oil and creating jobs here at home, and the Administration is fully committed to exploring for potential energy resources in frontier areas such as the Arctic,” Salazar said in a statement. But, he added, “we also recognize that the unique challenges posed by the Arctic environment demand an even higher level of scrutiny.” Read more
From Surf to Serfdom – By Kenneth Levin Frontpagemag.com
Unemployment in my home state of Massachusetts is less than the national average. In August, it stood at 6.3% compared to 8.1% nationally. 
The state benefits from very robust high-tech sectors. But, of course, low-tech industries also figure in its economy.
Particularly hard hit among the latter in the current downturn has been the state’s large fishing industry. Its problems, and the plight of workers dependent on fishing for their livelihood,
are illustrative both of the general difficulties of the economy across the country and of ways in which specific Obama administration policies have compounded the overall decline. ,,,Read More
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/kenneth-levin/from-surf-to-serfdom/
Interior Department Releases List of Monuments Under Review, First-Ever Formal Public Comment Period for Antiquities Act Monuments
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