CDP: Oceans Clips: February 27, 2023
Biden Admin Sets Gulf Of Mexico Offshore Oil Sale. According to Politico, “The Biden administration will auction more than 70 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil developers later this spring to comply with a mandate in its signature climate and clean energy law. The massive auction on March 29 will offer drillers access to bid on 73.3 million acres in the Gulf, according to a final sale notice published Friday by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. This is the third offshore auction since President Joe Biden took office. This one was ordered by the Inflation Reduction Act — the Democrats' massive clean energy and climate law enacted last year — as a concession to pro-oil Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).” [Politico, 2/24/23 (=)]
As Oil Companies Stay Lean, Workers Move to Renewable Energy. “Emma McConville was thrilled when she landed a job as a geologist at Exxon Mobil in 2017. She was assigned to work on one of the company’s most exciting and lucrative projects, a giant oil field off Guyana. But after oil prices collapsed during the pandemic, she was laid off on a video call at the end of 2020. “I probably blacked out halfway,” Ms. McConville recalled. Her shock was short-lived. Just four months later, she landed a job with Fervo, a young Houston company that aims to tap geothermal energy under the Earth’s surface. Today she manages the design of two Fervo projects in Nevada and Utah, and earns more than she did at Exxon.” [The New York Times, 2/27/23]
Enabling Floating Offshore Wind Could Rapidly Expand Total Offshore Wind Pipeline, Biden Advisor Says. According to Utility Drive, “The Biden administration views floating offshore wind as an opportunity to rapidly expand the offshore wind project pipeline, Robert Golden, a senior advisor for clean energy infrastructure to the White House, told attendees of DOE’s Floating Offshore Wind Shot Summit Thursday. Floating offshore platforms could unlock new generation capacity off the coast of California, in the Gulf of Maine and in the Gulf of Mexico, Golden said. Officials from those states cited a desire to improve local economic prospects and reduce carbon emissions as motivation for joining regional and national collaborations on floating offshore wind research and development.” [Utility Drive, 2/24/23 (=)]
Judges Question Feds' Interpretation Of Whale Data. According to Politico, “Federal appeals court judges questioned the basis of a NOAA Fisheries biological opinion on an endangered whale species that the lobster industry claims is overly cautious and will regulate Maine’s coastal fishers out of business. During oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday, an attorney representing NOAA Fisheries defended the agency’s biological opinion, saying that in accordance with the Endangered Species Act, it used the best available data and issued its opinion in the best interest of the North Atlantic right whale.” [Politico, 2/24/23 (=)]
New Study Reveals Biodiversity Loss Drove Ecological Collapse After The 'Great Dying'. According to Phys.org, “The history of life on Earth has been punctuated by several mass extinctions, the greatest of these being the Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as the Great Dying, which occurred 252 million years ago. While scientists generally agree on its causes, exactly how this mass extinction unfolded—and the ecological collapse that followed—remains a mystery. In a study published today in Current Biology, researchers analyzed marine ecosystems before, during, and after the Great Dying to better understand the series of events that led to ecological destabilization. In doing so, the international study team—composed of researchers from the California Academy of Sciences, the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), and the University of Bristol—revealed that biodiversity loss may be the harbinger of a more devastating ecological collapse, a concerning finding given that the rate of species loss today outpaces that during the Great Dying.” [Phys.org, 2/24/23 (=)]
The Bay Could Soon Have Its First Region-Wide Sea Level Rise Plan. But Who Would Enforce It? According to KQED, “A coalition of advocates, academics and government officials are throwing their weight behind a regional strategy to address future sea level rise. They argue that, for the plan to work, state regulators spearheading the effort need new authority to implement it — a policy idea that many stakeholders agree is necessary, but that would require the equivalent of a political Hail Mary pass. "We need to learn how to be a 21st-century sea level rise permitting agency and we're working on addressing that right now," said Dana Brechwald, assistant planning director for climate adaptation with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). She also oversees the Adapting to Rising Tides program, which seeks to help shoreline communities across nine counties plan for sea level rise.” [KQED, 2/24/23 (=)]
The Risk Of Damage From Hurricane Winds Will Shift In Coming Decades. See The Impact By Zip Code. According to The Washington Post, “Hurricane winds fueled by climate change will reach further inland and put tens of millions more Americans’ lives and homes at risk in the next three decades, according to a detailed new analysis released Monday. The data from the nonprofit First Street Foundation comes as hundreds of people remain displaced across southwest Florida, five months after Hurricane Ian barreled across the state and killed nearly 150 people. A Washington Post analysis of the group’s data found that nearly 30 million Americans in about 235 counties across 18 states in the contiguous United States, from Texas to New England, will face new threats from hurricane-force winds. A third of Americans could experience damaging gales by 2053, in places as far inland as Tennessee and Arkansas.” [Washington Post, 2/27/23]
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