David Bernhardt

 

Op-Ed: If David Bernhardt Becomes Interior Secretary, Florida’s Coastline, Economy Will Be In Trouble. According to Miami Herald, “The Interior Department plays an important role in Floridians’ lives, helping to manage conservation of federal lands and waters. Key among these resources: the ocean, waves and beaches that draw so many to the state each year. Interior plays a crucial role in the decision to protect (or not) coasts from offshore drilling. That’s exactly why Florida’s Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott need to make sure the new secretary of Interior understands the importance of public lands and waters to our economy and way of life. As business owners and taxpayers reliant on the health of the coastline to create jobs and grow our economy, the Interior Department’s recent troubling moves to open Florida’s coasts for offshore drilling are deeply concerning. At the same time that the Department is opening areas of the Gulf for leasing, Bernhardt’s team at Interior is laying the groundwork for seismic testing in the Atlantic, a likely first step on the road to full-blown drilling. Bernhardt’s record also raises serious questions about his objectivity in matters affecting our coasts. Why, for example, did the Department rush to approve more than 70 permits for offshore drilling during the government shutdown, including 53 for companies that sit on the board of one of his former clients? The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), one of the largest offshore drilling industry organizations in the country, once represented by Bernhardt in court, benefited at a time when Interior was short-staffed, and serious oversight likely couldn’t be conducted.” [Miami Herald, 4/8/19 (+)]

 

Offshore Drilling

 

U.S. Taxpayers Could Pay $10B For Oil Rig Cleanup. According to E&E News, “Taxpayers may be on the hook for billions of dollars to help clean up the oil industry’s rig messes in the Gulf of Mexico, experts are now warning. Federal regulators say they’ll do everything in their power to prevent this from happening, but industry researchers monitoring skyrocketing costs for offshore well plugging, abandonment and rig decommissioning in the world’s ocean oil hubs say the reality of rising financial burdens faced by foreign governments strongly suggests that the United States is next. The oil and gas industry has installed thousands of artificial islands to extract hydrocarbons from deep within the Earth’s crust. Many of these offshore platforms are among the heaviest, most complicated and expensive pieces of marine equipment ever to be constructed. Adept at installing them, the oil giants never designed them to be removed, though they were required to eventually do so by law. Now, the rapidly escalating offshore decommissioning price tag is the largest liability the industry faces as wells run dry and rigs rust and age well past their prime (Energywire, March 23, 2017). Martha Vasquez and Philip Whittaker, analysts with the Boston Consulting Group, who’ve been investigating the oil and gas industry’s offshore decommissioning dilemma, say the mounting problem is forcing taxpayers to contribute billions of dollars for rig removals in the North Sea and Southeast Asia. Latin America, offshore Africa, and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico are next, they believe.” [E&E News, 4/9/19 (=)]

 

5th Circuit Raises Standing Bar For Groups' Suit On EPA Drilling Permit. According to Inside EPA, “A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit grilled environmentalists at recent oral argument on whether they have standing to sue EPA over a Clean Water Act (CWA) general permit for offshore oil and gas activities in the western Gulf of Mexico, raising concerns about how the groups could trace harms to specific discharges. Judges Edith H. Jones, a Reagan appointee, and James C. Ho and Andrew S. Oldham, both Trump appointees, were all critical of environmentalist attorney Kristen Monsell’s position on standing in Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), et al. v. EPA during April 3 oral argument. Jones, for example, questioned whether there is no geographical limit on standing and the other judges questioned whether plaintiffs’ declarations were specific enough to meet the traceability prong of the standing test. Just prior to oral argument, the judges asked the attorneys in the case to be prepared to discuss standing. The case is just the latest high-profile environmental law suit where environmentalists and other Trump administration critics are facing challenges to their standing. In State of California, et al. v. EPA, the federal government is arguing (/node/185509) that the ‘special’ standing the Supreme Court granted states to address climate change does not allow plaintiffs to challenge EPA’s efforts to delay landfill methane standards.” [Inside EPA, 4/8/19 (=)]

 

Amid Presidential Campaign, Beto O’Rourke Flips Positions On A 2016 Offshore Drilling Vote. According to The Texas Tribune, “Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke has reversed positions on a controversial vote he cast on offshore drilling in 2016. The vote, called ‘anti-environment’ by the League of Conservation Voters, left the door open to using federal money to study oil and gas exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where offshore drilling is mostly off limits. The current ban has bipartisan support in the battleground state of Florida, and prominent members of both parties oppose drilling in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of states like South Carolina, which holds a crucial early presidential primary next year. The O’Rourke campaign told The Texas Tribune Friday that the newly minted 2020 hopeful had a change of heart about his 2016 vote after traveling the country and talking to voters. Beto for America spokesman Chris Evans said O’Rourke’s vote — opposing Democratic attempts to cut off money to investigate drilling in the eastern Gulf — was all about trying to ‘get off of our foreign reliance on resources in oil and gas that has caused so much foreign wars and American lives and troops and resources.’ ‘For him it’s looking for ways to harness American ingenuity and resources and doing it with our environmental standards rather than relying on nations who have no environmental standards, so that was the explanation at the time,’ Evans said. ‘But then you know the follow up to that is he wouldn’t cast that same vote today with all that he knows and all that he has heard from people.’” [The Texas Tribune, 4/6/19 (=)]

 

Plastic Pollution

 

Plastic Bottles Have Surpassed Plastic Bags As The Biggest Threat To Oceans And Rivers. According to Fast Company, “The good news is that consumers in Europe have done a great job curbing their use of plastic bags, and fewer are ending up in waterways around the world. The bad news is that now plastic bottles are clogging oceans and rivers. According to the new Plastic Rivers report from Earthwatch Europe and Plastic Oceans UK, plastic bottles are now the most prevalent form of plastic pollution in European waterways. Coming in second are food wrappers, like potato chip bags and candy bar wrappers, followed by cigarette butts. Here’s how the list of visible litter shakes out: Bottles: 14% Food wrappers: 12% Cigarette butts: 9% Disposable food containers: 6% Cotton-swab sticks: 5% Takeaway cups: 4% Not only are Coke bottles, Camel butts, Frito-Lay packages, and some stranger’s ear wax-laden Q-tip nasty to look at while you’re trying to appreciate nature, but they kill wildlife and fish and are difficult to clean up.” [Fast Company, 4/8/19 (+)]

 

State's Effort To Ban Plastic Bags Stalls As New York’s Advances. According to Politico, “A year ago, New Jersey appeared ready to beat out New York in enacting legislation to crack down on single-use plastic bags, those ubiquitous scourges on the environment that regularly turn up in waterways and landfills. The tables have turned. New York approved a ban on plastic bags as part of the state budget approved last week, while the effort in New Jersey appears to be going nowhere. Fierce industry opposition has played a role in the slow-down in Trenton, as manufacturers of plastic bags look to kill a bill that was introduced in the Democrat-controlled Legislature last year. But there are other factors at play, as the New Jersey bill tackles more forms of plastic waste than what New York approved, creating a lot more red tape for proponents. Still, environmentalists are hopeful New York’s ban — which takes effect next March — will help jump start the effort in New Jersey. ‘Part of the thunderclap of the New York state ban is that this shows a ban on single-use plastics is not out of the mainstream,’ said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey. ‘This is not just New York City — this is all of New York state. … The reality is if our northern neighbor can ban plastic bags, why can’t we?’” [Politico, 4/8/19 (=)]

 

 

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