Offshore Oil & Gas

 

Drilling Down. According to Politico, “The president is expected to give remarks in Newport News, Va., tonight — though his intended audience is a bit further south. POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt reported earlier this week that Trump will aim to woo voters in neighboring North Carolina, a key battleground where he is polling neck-and-neck with Biden. The trip comes as we await an expected, expanded offshore drilling moratorium from the White House that would include North Carolina, according to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). He said earlier this week Trump assured him the state would be included in a moratorium that initially included only Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. About that: Lawyers from the Justice Department argued this week the memorandum doesn’t extend to exploring the area for oil or natural gas, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports. Trump placing the waters off limits to drill ships earlier this month ‘has no legal effect on the status of the applications to conduct seismic surveys in the Atlantic OCS that are pending before’ the Interior Department, DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing with the U.S. District Court for South Carolina in Charleston. ‘The authorization of geological and geophysical permits, including for seismic surveys, by [the Interior Department] is a separate decision process from whether to offer oil and gas lease sales.’ Interior has yet to approve seismic survey applications the Trump administration started to review in May 2017 to look for oil and gas deposits in the region. But seismic testing could hasten the start of drilling there if Trump decides to reverse his moratorium. ‘It’s not surprising that Trump’s executive order does not fully protect Florida’s beautiful coastline,’ said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) through spokeswoman Olivia Hodges. ‘His devastating environmental record speaks for itself.’” [Politico, 9/25/20 (=)]

 

Questions Linger On Offshore Drilling, Seismic. According to Coastal Review, “Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., announced this week that President Trump had agreed to prevent drilling for oil and natural gas off the North Carolina coast, but the president has yet to speak publicly on the matter, and his administration says it is still moving forward with permitting for seismic exploration in the Atlantic. Tillis, whom polls show trailing his Democratic Party challenger Cal Cunningham, announced Monday that Trump had agreed to add North Carolina to a multistate moratorium on Atlantic offshore drilling announced earlier this month. The president announced Sept. 8 during an event in Jupiter, Florida, an order to extend the moratorium on offshore drilling on Florida’s Gulf Coast and expand it to Florida’s Atlantic Coast, as well as the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. North Carolina was not included at the time. Tillis said Monday that he had spoken with Trump who agreed North Carolina would be included in the presidential memorandum withdrawing new leasing for offshore oil and gas developments for the next 12 years. Also on Monday, the Department of Justice filed a document with the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, stating that Trump’s memorandum ‘has no legal effect’ on the status of the applications to conduct seismic surveys in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf that are pending before the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.” [Coastal Review, 9/24/20 (=)]

 

Interior Could Allow Atlantic Oil Exploration Despite Drilling Ban. According to Politico, “Details: Trump placing the waters off Florida and areas of the Atlantic coast off limits to drill ships earlier this month ‘has no legal effect on the status of the applications to conduct seismic surveys in the Atlantic OCS that are pending before’ the Interior Department, DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing with the U.S. District Court for South Carolina in Charleston earlier this week. ‘The authorization of geological and geophysical permits, including for seismic surveys, by [the Interior Department] is a separate decision process from whether to offer oil and gas lease sales.’ Context: Interior has yet to approve seismic survey applications the Trump administration started to review in May 2017 to look for oil and gas deposits in the region. Although Trump’s orders bar Interior from offering leases to companies looking to drill in the area, critics have warned that the surveys’ use of sonic cannons to search for subsurface fossil fuels harms marine life. Seismic testing could also hasten the start of drilling there if Trump decides to reverse his executive memorandum if he is reelected in November. ‘The new filing is perfectly consistent with a scenario in which Trump reverses course yet again and opens every part of the Atlantic Ocean to offshore drilling,’ Center for Biological Diversity’s Kristen Monsell said in a press release. The Commerce Department has already granted companies permits for seismic surveys in the Atlantic. The Interior Department must grant its own permits for the same companies. An Interior Department spokesperson did not immediately offer comment. What’s next: CDB, the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce and other groups are suing the administration in court to block the survey permits.” [Politico, 9/24/20 (=)]

 

Shell: 'No Plans' For Alaska Exploration. According to Upstream, “Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell said Thursday it has no plans to frontier exploration offshore Alaska and plans to fully divest its shallow-water leases there to a new operator.” [Upstream, 9/25/20 (=)]

 

Marine Renewable Energy

 

Wind Farm Studies Yield Food For Thought. According to Cape Gazette, “The fourth University of Rhode Island Baird Symposium webinar on Offshore Renewable Energy in the United States, held Wednesday, was a big hit. More than 130 people participated in the webinar. The ‘Learning As We Go’ session addressed ‘Effects on the Food Web’ and featured two guest speakers who have studied offshore wind farms in Europe for a number of years. Presenters were Andrew Gill, principal scientist at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science in the UK, and Jennifer Dannheim from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. Questions from the audience were culled by Elizabeth Methratta of the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. An audience member asked a question about NOAA’s position that ongoing fisheries surveys would be interrupted by offshore wind farms. The participant asked: ‘NOAA has referenced disruption of survey areas by wind farms. Does NOAA have specifics on survey areas disrupted? How they would be disrupted, where and frequency?’ Methratta added: ‘And how was survey disruption handled in Europe.’ ‘Fisheries surveys in the United Kingdom did not experience problems,’ Gill replied. ‘Scientists worked around them, just like they compensate for weather. So, wind farms did not interfere with surveys in United Kingdom wind farms.’” [Cape Gazette, 9/23/20 (=)]

 

Fisheries & Marine Life

 

Who Has The Best Science? NOAA, Gulf States Revive Feud . According to E&E News, “After fielding years of complaints that federal fishing rules had become too strict, NOAA signed off on a pilot project in 2018 that allowed five states to manage harvesting of the popular red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. Just two years later, there are indications that the experiment is rapidly falling apart, with both sides now reviving their long-running fight over how the population should be counted to prevent overfishing. ‘There is clearly some gamesmanship going on, and rather than treat it as a partnership, NOAA Fisheries seems to want to continue its adversarial relationship with the states and with recreational anglers,’ said Ted Venker, conservation director for the Coastal Conservation Association, a nonprofit group that represents saltwater anglers. The dispute is complicated, centering on whether Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas should be allowed to use their own data systems to count fish or be required to use federal methods, including landings data generated by NOAA’s Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP). Venker said that returning to the federal system would be ‘absurd.’ Among other things, fishermen complain that the federal system would result in shortened seasons, warning that Texas anglers could be allowed to fish in federal waters for only a couple of days in 2021.” [E&E News, 9/24/20 (=)]

 

Sea-Level Rise

 

Op-Ed: All Communities Are Affected By The Climate Crisis. According to The Gainesville Sun, “Climate change is no distant threat for generations far down the road. Here in Florida, we are already experiencing and aware of the well-known effects of global warming, from stronger and more frequent hurricanes to sea-level rise. But, as an inland community seemingly distanced from these threats, it can be easier to talk down the dangers of climate change. Unfortunately, we are not as distant from climate issues as we might think. In the Gainesville area, climate change poses real threats to our food and water supply. While saving the polar bears and our coastal cities are strong calls to act on climate, it can seem intangible and out of individuals’ reach unless it is impacting them directly. I am here to tell you that all communities, even inland, will be affected by the climate crisis and must act accordingly. Florida uniquely rests on limestone, and in it lies the Floridan Aquifer, which serves as our fresh water supply in Gainesville. The Floridan Aquifer is surrounded by the ocean’s saltwater. The waters have historically remained intact and separated, but our activities are causing our aquifer to be contaminated as saltwater intrudes into our limestone. Sea level rise, as well as over-pumping from the aquifer, is causing saltwater intrusion. This sea-level rise won’t only contaminate the coastal aquifers, but move inland through aquifers in contact with the ocean or through canals exiting to the ocean. As our water supply becomes contaminated with saltwater, more and more of it will become undrinkable. Climate change is a threat to our state’s water supply — which we all rely on to survive.” [The Gainesville Sun, 9/24/20 (+)]

 

Ocean Health & Management

 

EPA Announces Water Office Reorganization. According to Politico, “The details: In an email sent to employees on Wednesday and shared with POLITICO, EPA water chief David Ross announced four structural changes that he said are intended ‘to better align its institutional structure with the agency’s water priorities.’ Under the reorganization, the team working on the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program will become a division with a Senior Executive Service director. Ross said this change acknowledges that the program has grown significantly since its inception, from five full-time employees with an appropriation of $2.2 million to 31 employees now handling $65 million in appropriations. The reorganization will also consolidate economists that have been embedded in the water office’s four main offices — Office of Science and Technology; Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds; Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water; and Office of Wastewater Management — into a new ‘economics center’ within the assistant administrator’s immediate office. Ross also announced that water office staffers responsible for coordinating with Congress, the Inspector General and other government entities would move to the Office of Policy Management and Engagement. And he announced the creation of a new Water Reuse Team, a move that underscores the topic as a priority for his office.” [Politico, 9/24/20 (=)]

 

Dems Call For Legates Removal From NOAA. According to Politico, “Eighty-five Democratic lawmakers, led by Reps. Jamie Raskin (Md.), Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.) and Kathy Castor (Fla.), wrote to the Commerce Department on Thursday to oppose the appointment of David Legates to NOAA, saying he will ‘discredit the dedicated researchers at NOAA in their essential work.’ The agency recently hired Legates, an academic who has questioned the seriousness of climate change, for a top political role, riling many in the agency. — New chief scientist questioned too: House Natural Resources Chair Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee Chair Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) separately wrote to NOAA’s Neil Jacobs on Thursday to express ‘dismay’ at the hire of Ryan Maue, a meteorologist who has challenged the link between extreme weather and climate change, as NOAA’s new chief scientist. Maue’s appointment ‘is now only one of many examples of a larger pattern of corrupting federal agencies to support the anti-science agenda of the White House,’ they write.” [Politico, 9/25/20 (=)]

 

Ocean Heat Waves Are Directly Linked To Climate Change. According to The New York Times, “Six years ago, a huge part of the Pacific Ocean near North America quickly warmed, reaching temperatures more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Nicknamed ‘the blob,’ it persisted for two years, with devastating impacts on marine life, including sea lions and salmon. The blob was a marine heat wave, the oceanic equivalent of a deadly summer atmospheric one. It was far from a solitary event: Tens of thousands have occurred in the past four decades, although most are far smaller and last for days rather than years. The largest and longest ones have occurred with increasing frequency over time. On Thursday, scientists revealed the culprit. Climate change, they said, is making severe marine heat waves much more likely. The study, published in the journal Science, looked at the blob and six other large events around the world, including one in the Northwest Atlantic in 2012. Human-caused global warming made these events at least 20 times more likely, the researchers found. ‘Some of these couldn’t even have occurred without climate change,’ said Charlotte Laufkötter, a marine scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the lead author of the study. In a world with no human-caused warming, a large marine heat wave would have had about a one-tenth of 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year — what is called a thousand-year event. But with the current rate of global warming, an ocean heat wave like that could soon have as much as a 10 percent chance of occurring, the study found.” [The New York Times, 9/24/20 (+)]

 

Udall Bill Would Prevent Ocean Plastic Dumping. According to E&E News, “Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) introduced legislation yesterday that would ban the release of plastic pellets into oceans and waterways. The ‘Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act’ would amend the Clean Water Act to prohibit any discharge of tiny plastic pellets into the environment via stormwater or wastewater at plastic production plants. It would also outlaw the discharge of the pellets from any other point source, including transportation. ‘It’s time to end the avalanche of plastic pellets damaging wildlife and the livelihoods of entire American communities that depend on healthy rivers, streams and beaches,’ Udall said in a statement. The plastic pellets, sometimes called nurdles, are less than 5 millimeters in diameter and are the primary building block for the plastic products used today. State agencies are responsible for issuing permits to plastic production facilities that restrict effluent releases. EPA has prohibited certain toxic pollutants, like mercury and benzene, from entering waterways. Udall’s bill would add plastic pellets to the litany of pollutants with federal restrictions. Production of the pellets has ramped up considerably in the United States in recent years, as cheap oil and gas have lowered the cost of production.” [E&E News, 9/25/20 (=)]

 

 

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