Offshore Oil & Gas

 

Rubio Looks To Defense Bill To Block Offshore Drilling, But Some Fear It Creates A Loophole. According to The Hill, “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is turning to a must-pass defense bill as a way to block offshore drilling off the coast of Florida, but fellow drilling opponents worry his amendment opens the door for the Department of Defense to speed extraction in the sensitive area. Rubio is making multiple efforts to block any drilling off the state’s Gulf Coast, home to multiple military installments that use the waters for training. One amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would extend the current moratorium on offshore drilling in the area through 2032. The other would require the secretary of Defense to sign off on all future lease sales in Florida’s Gulf to assure the drilling wouldn’t interfere with military operations. Though the military has long resisted drilling in the area, some worry the amendment would give a presidential appointee the power to greenlight drilling with little oversight from Congress. ‘This signs over control of when and where drilling can happen to the secretary of Defense. The secretary of Defense works for the president, and this president has made his case very clear that he wants offshore drilling,’ Diane Hoskins, a campaign director with Oceana, told The Hill. ‘It’s essentially a huge loophole for drilling. So it’s way too risky, it’s a bad approach [and] it does not extend the moratorium,’ she added. ‘The bottom line is Florida doesn’t want drilling to get an inch closer and any deal that risks that is a raw deal for Florida.’” [The Hill, 7/1/20 (=)]

 

Marine Renewable Energy

 

Trump Plans Rules That Could Cut Red Tape For Offshore Wind. According to Los Angeles Times, “The Interior Department plans to release proposed rules this month that would streamline permitting requirements for offshore wind projects and eliminate offshore leasing that isn’t first nominated by developers, according to the Trump administration’s spring regulatory agenda. In the agenda, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it had ‘identified deregulatory possibilities’ to expedite the larger process of permitting offshore renewable developments, including more flexible geophysical and geotechnical survey submission requirements, streamlined approval of meteorological buoys, revised project verification procedures, and ‘greater clarity regarding safety requirements.’ A spokesman for BOEM said it would make the ‘regulatory changes to increase the efficiency and predictability of the renewable energy development process’ in line with a 2017 presidential order and ‘other directives.’ The executive order from the first days of the Trump administration mandates that for every federal rule issued, two previous rules should be flagged for elimination, without increasing total costs (Greenwire, Jan. 30, 2017). The other upcoming rule proposal from BOEM may end a leasing practice that some have questioned: offering new areas of the ocean during offshore bidding wars that weren’t first nominated by the private sector or some other interested party.” [Los Angeles Times, 7/1/20 (=)]

 

Ocean Health & Management

 

U.S. Says Leaking Nuclear Waste Dome Is Safe; Marshall Islands Leaders Don’t Believe It . According to Los Angeles Times, “In response to a directive from Congress, the Department of Energy released a report this week assessing the risks of a 50-year-old cracking and crumbling concrete nuclear waste repository in the Marshall Islands, but the findings did little to ease the concerns of Marshallese leaders in the Central Pacific. The DOE report found that Runit Dome, a repository for atomic waste the United States produced during Cold War weapons testing, is sound and that radioactive leakage into the nearby lagoon is not significant. After Congress grew concerned last year about the leaking dome, it ordered the DOE to produce a report on the dome’s structural integrity amid climate change and rising sea levels. The report noted that while sea level rise could increase storm surge, swells, and ‘lead to wave-induced over-wash of lower sections of the dome,’ there is not enough definitive data to determine ‘how these events might impact on the environment.’ One Marshallese leader was disappointed the DOE again downplayed the risks and declined to take responsibility for Runit Dome and its leaking contents. ‘We don’t expect the Enewetak community to feel any safer based on this report as it doesn’t contain any new information from what they’ve seen...and don’t trust,’ said Rhea Christian-Moss, the chairperson of the Marshall Islands’ National Nuclear Commission, a government-operated nuclear waste and radiation oversight panel.” [Los Angeles Times, 7/1/20 (=)]

 

 

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