Interior Gives Lawmakers No Guarantees On 5-Year Plan. According to E&E News, “The acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management yesterday told House lawmakers the agency would release ‘in the coming weeks’ its revised proposed five-year offshore drilling plan to open up more than 90 percent of federal waters to oil and gas leasing. Natural Resources Committee Democrats couldn’t pin down Walter Cruickshank on a specific date for the second rollout of the highly anticipated proposal, which once released will enter a 90-day public comment period. Lawmakers also couldn’t get him to say which states — if any — ultimately will be excluded from the 2019-2024 outer continental shelf plan to put the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans in play for potential drilling. ‘How much longer and what needs to happen before we make a final determination that Florida will be either in or out of this plan given that the entire Florida delegation opposes it?’ Florida Democratic Rep. Darren Soto asked Cruickshank during an Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee hearing. ‘Where we are in the process right now, congressman, is we are finalizing the analysis of the schedule that was in the draft proposed program, providing that analysis and the comments received from the public, from governors, from the congressional delegation to the acting secretary so that he can make his decisions on what to include in the proposed program,’ the BOEM acting director said, noting the ‘rather drawn-out process’ dictated by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.” [E&E News, 3/7/19 (=)]

 

BOEM: New Offshore Drilling Draft Plan Due ‘In Coming Weeks’. According to Politico, “The Interior Department plans to release the latest draft of its proposed offshore oil and gas leasing plan ‘in the coming weeks,’ a department official said today. The comments from Walter Cruickshank, acting director for Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, were the first official indication in months on the status of the administration’s new offshore plan. Interior has been working on the draft plan for months as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to expand offshore drilling. Cruickshank, who had been speaking at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing, did not offer more details of when the new draft might be released. He said it was still being analyzed at BOEM and would then have to go to the office of Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt for review. Democrats and Republicans from coastal states have told Interior they do not want to see coastal waters in the Atlantic and Pacific opened to offshore drilling. Cruickshank said the draft plan would only analyze which areas could be offered for lease sales, and that Bernhardt would ultimately have to decide what would be put on the auction block. ‘It will be the acting secretary’s decision which areas to include in lease sales,’ Cruickshank told committee members.” [Politico, 3/6/19 (=)]

 

Whither Florida? According to Politico, “The Interior Department is planning to release the latest draft of its proposed offshore oil and gas leasing plan ‘in the coming weeks,’ Walter Cruickshank, acting BOEM chief, told a Natural Resources subcommittee hearing Wednesday, as Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports. But one Hill source noted that the fact Cruickshank said BOEM was still analyzing the proposal means that former Secretary Ryan Zinke — who said Florida would be exempt from any new plan — never signed off on it. That means that any decision on whether to lease federal waters off Florida’s western beaches resides with acting Secretary David Bernhardt — who never promised Florida anything. ‘Cruickshank says that it’s still at BOEM — meaning that as far as we know, whatever Zinke signed off on when he left, including his ‘Florida is out of the equation’ stuff, is no longer operative,’ the source noted. Cruickshank left the hearing without taking reporters’ questions, but his comments are the first official indication on the status of the administration’s new offshore plan in months. What else happened during the hearing? Energy and Minerals Subcommittee Chairman Alan Lowenthal criticized BSEE Director Scott Angelle for not appearing before the subcommittee himself, and instead sent Doug Morris, chief of BSEE’s offshore regulatory program, Ben reports. That follows a letter committee leaders sent Wednesday to Interior requesting Angelle’s phone records, pointing to a 2017 speech in which he told oil executives, ‘I’d rather you call me,’ because written correspondence would be subject to public records requests.” [Politico, 3/7/19 (=)]

 

Democrats Grill Offshore Drilling Safety Agency On Permit Waivers. According to Politico, “House Natural Resources Committee Democrats repeated their demand on Wednesday that the Interior Department furnish years of unredacted drilling permits showing how many waivers from safety rules it had given to offshore oil and gas rig operators. Interior issued nearly 1,700 waivers from parts of the Well Control Rule between its enactment in 2016 and last spring, as POLITICO first reported last week. Critics have questioned why Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement have granted the waivers to a rule designed to respond to the Deepwater Horizon disaster and why it has not made waiver requests public. ‘We were absolutely devastated by the BP oil spill’ resulting from the Deepwater Horizon explosion, said Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.). ‘These Well Control Rules were put in place to avoid this happening again. It has dumbfounded our entire delegation after we put these rules in place that we see them shredded to Swiss cheese right now.’ Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), chairman of the subcommittee on energy and minerals, criticized BSEE Director Scott Angelle for not appearing before the subcommittee himself. Lowenthal said he was told Angelle was ‘too busy’ to attend, despite being in town Wednesday.” [Politico, 3/6/19 (=)]

 

Microplastic Pollution Revealed ‘Absolutely Everywhere’ By New Research. According to The Guardian, “Microplastic pollution spans the world, according to new studies showing contamination in the UK’s lake and rivers, in groundwater in the US and along the Yangtze river in China and the coast of Spain. Humans are known to consume the tiny plastic particles via food and water, but the possible health effects on people and ecosystems have yet to be determined. One study, in Singapore, has found that microplastics can harbour harmful microbes. The new analysis in the UK found microplastic pollution in all 10 lakes, rivers and reservoirs sampled. More than 1,000 small pieces of plastic per litre were found in the River Tame, near Manchester, which was revealed last year as the most contaminated place yet tested worldwide. Even in relatively remote places such as the Falls of Dochart and Loch Lomond in Scotland, two or three pieces per litre were found. ‘It was startling. I wasn’t expecting to find as much as we did,’ said Christian Dunn at Bangor University, Wales, who led the work. ‘It is quite depressing they were there in some of our country’s most iconic locations. I’m sure Wordsworth would not be happy to discover his beloved Ullswater in the Lake District was polluted with plastic. ‘Microplastics are being found absolutely everywhere [but] we do not know the dangers they could be posing. It’s no use looking back in 20 years time and saying: ‘If only we’d realised just how bad it was.’ We need to be monitoring our waters now and we need to think, as a country and a world, how we can be reducing our reliance on plastic.’” [The Guardian, 3/6/19 (+)]

 

Why Christians Are Giving Up Plastics For Lent. According to New York Post, “Instead of staying away from alcohol or sweets for Lent, some Christians are honoring the religious observance by giving up plastic. Churches near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are advising their followers to go eco-friendly and give up Styrofoam, food wrappers, shopping bags, drinking straws and water bottles, reports The Washington Post. ‘It’s a way to think about it as more than just a personal thing, like chocolate or alcohol that’s enjoyable,’ said Rev. Sarah Rossing, pastor of St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Youngstown, Pa. ‘This is asking people to give up convenience … and be more intentional with things and the Earth.’ Rossing said that her church came up with the idea after a local Episcopalian church encouraged churchgoers to cut back on plastics like Styrofoams and grocery bags. Lent began on Ash Wednesday March 6 and ends on Easter Sunday on April 21. Meanwhile people in the UK have launched a Twitter hashtag #PlasticFreeLent after watching Blue Planet II.” [New York Post, 3/6/19 (+)]

 

Drones: The Future Of Ocean Conservation. According to Inhabitat, “Unmanned systems such as drones, are increasingly used in a variety of fields — from border patrol, to cinematography to just plain showing off your cool new toy with neighbors. Thanks to rapidly improving technology, durability and artificial intelligence, these unmanned systems also show significant promise in the field of ocean conservation. Scientists can save significant time and resources by collecting data, mapping species and monitoring huge areas of ocean impossible to reach by boat. ‘Drones are fundamentally changing the way we monitor and manage our environment,’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Institute Captain, Brian Taggart, told DroneLife. Taggart explained that unmanned systems can help scientists track the abundance and distribution of endangered species, patrol for illegal fishing and monitor areas that might be hard for boats to reach — such as shallow reefs.” [Inhabitat, 3/6/19 (=)]

 

Ocean Advocacy Group Urges Crackdown On 'Seafood Fraud'. According to The Hill, “Oceana, an ocean conservation and advocacy organization, says one out of every five fish sold is mislabeled and is calling on the government to expand rules to track the source of seafood. The group is using a new fraud investigation to draw attention to the issue of boat-to-plate seafood traceability, which advocates say is essential to preventing illegal fishing or fraud. An investigation tested 449 samples of seafood, all of which were not included under an existing federal program to monitor the sources of seafood. The samples came from 24 states and Washington, D.C. between March and August 2018. The government in 2018 established the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, but the program applies to on 13 seafood types, tracing them from the boat, or farm, to the U.S. border.” [The Hill, 3/7/19 (=)]

 

 

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