White House still committed to Arctic drilling

[Trakar]

White House, key Congress members still committed to Arctic drilling | Environment | ADN.com

...By Sean Cockerham — Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON — Critics want a halt to offshore Arctic drilling in the wake of Shell’s latest mishap in the waters off Alaska but there’s no sign the Obama administration and key members of Congress are backing off their support for drilling in the sensitive region...

...“The administration understands that the Arctic environment presents unique challenges and that’s why the secretary has repeatedly made clear that any approved drilling activities will be held to the highest safety and environmental standards,” Salazar spokesman Blake Androff said Thursday. “The department will continue to carefully review permits for any activity and all proposals must meet our rigorous standards.”...

The most unique challenge of the arctic environment, is trying to minimize the human impact upon that region. "Standing by" arctic development plans is failing that challenge not meeting or addressing the unique challenge it presents.

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[skookerasbil]

Nobody cares s0n.........the world needs cheap energy. Its the way its going to be as Ive astutely pointed out by multiple postings of future energy production graphs all over this place.

Renewables 30 years from now?

A sliver of the pie.


Like I say.........nobody cares about the science.

 

[Old Rocks]

Not only unknown territory, but unknown results. One has to wonder how long before they start drilling big time, and how long it will take to find out how fragile the clathrates are. Really a dangerous game for a lot of reasons.

 

[waltky]

Now we aint' never gonna be independent of foreign oil...

28% of ‘Recoverable Oil ‘ Now Off-Limits in National Petroleum Reserve
March 5, 2013 – Outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a directive that places 28 percent of the “estimated economically recoverable oil” in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska off-limits. The 22.8-million acre reserve in Alaska’s North Slope has been protected as an oil resource for the United States since 1923.

Salazar signed the Record of Decision (ROD) on Feb. 21, marking the first time a plan has been implemented to regulate all of the reserve, including the decision to “protect” some of the land for Native Alaskans and wildlife. “As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand domestic energy production, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today signed the Record of Decision (ROD) for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A),” the announcement says. “The final action allows for the development of 72 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil in the nearly 23-million-acre Reserve, while protecting the vital subsistence resources of Alaska Natives and the habitat of world-class wildlife populations.”

The other 28 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil would not be open for development. “The balanced approach under this plan is the result of extensive local input and will help guide the responsible production and transport of the substantial oil and gas resources in and around the Reserve,” Salazar said in a press release making the announcement. “This comprehensive plan will allow us to continue to expand our leasing in the NPR-A, as has happened over the last three years, while protecting the outstanding and unique resources that are critically important to the culture and subsistence lifestyle of Alaska Natives and our nation’s conservation heritage.”

Critics of the decision – on both sides of the aisle – charge that the move is not in the best interest of Americans, including those who live in Alaska. “As gasoline prices continue to increase for the 34th day in a row, the Obama Administration has responded by locking up a majority of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which Congress specifically established for oil and natural gas production,” Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee said in a statement about the plan. “Only in President Obama’s backwards worldview of anti-energy policies does it make sense to prohibit energy production in a place specifically set aside for energy production at a time when gasoline prices are skyrocketing and federal oil and natural gas production is declining.”

Sen. Mark Begich, (D-Alaska) said a request from the village of Nuiqsut, a mostly Alaskan Native community located in the reserve, for more area south of Teshekpuk Lake to be made available for leasing, was ignored by the Interior Department. "No one disputes the importance of Teshekpuk Lake to waterfowl and caribou, but I think we should listen most closely to those who live there and depend on both these critical subsistence resources as well as the economic opportunity resource development can bring," Begich said in a statement. Hastings’ statement noted that according to conservative estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey, there are over 2.7 billion barrels of oil and 114.36 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the NPR-A.

MORE

See also:

Waxman on Keystone: ‘We Don’t Need this Dirty Oil’
March 4, 2013 – Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) – the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee – said that America does not need the “dirty oil” that would be imported through the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, which received long-awaited favorable environmental review from the U.S. government.

“We don’t need this dirty oil. To stop climate change and the destructive storms, droughts, floods, and wildfires that we are already experiencing, we should be investing in clean energy, not building a pipeline that will speed the exploitation of Canada’s highly polluting tar sands,” Waxman said in a statement on Friday responding to the government’s analysis.

In its draft environmental review released Friday, the State Department said the construction of the pipeline through much of the Midwest would not have a meaningful impact on climate change. “[T]here would be no substantive increase in GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions and…there would likely be no substantial change in WCSB [Canadian oil] imports to PADD 3 [Gulf Coast refineries] with or without the proposed Project [Keystone],” State wrote in its environmental report.

In other words, State concluded that building the Keystone XL pipeline would not have any real effect on global warming because even if the U.S. blocked the importation of Canadian oil, that oil would find buyers elsewhere. It also found that even if the pipeline is blocked, the oil would find a different route to Gulf Coast refineries as global oil market conditions changed.

The report comes after years of governmental delays for the project, proposed by the Canadian firm TransCanada and rejected by President Barack Obama in 2011. The company reapplied for a State Department permit in 2012. A federal permit is required because the project crosses state and international boundaries.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/waxman-keystone-we-don-t-need-dirty-oil

Related:

As U.S. scales back, ‘King Coal’ reigns as global powerhouse
Monday, March 4, 2013 - It’s been a rough few years for the coal industry, with President Obama and environmental groups seemingly bent on driving it out of business. But for coal, all the world’s a stage — and a market.

While Mr. Obama has vowed to keep ratcheting up the regulation of coal-fired power plants in the U.S., forcing hundreds to close, nations from Europe to the Far East are hungry for coal, and their demand is only going to get stronger in the years ahead as more nations turn to coal as a primary source of power. Coal by 2030 will be the most widely used fuel worldwide as developing countries electrify burgeoning cities and rural areas where billions of people have had no or little access to power, according to the International Energy Agency.

The U.S., Europe and Japan may debate the merits of coal versus nuclear, natural gas, wind and other cleaner fuels, but for developing countries that have considerably less income and wealth to pay for power projects, those more-expensive sources of power are rarely realistic alternatives. For this vast swath of humanity, coal remains the main or only alternative to improve their lives with a reliable energy source.

“For a vast multitude of the human race, the world is a dark place,” said Frank Clemente, a retired Pennsylvania State University professor. “Over 1.2 billion people lack any electricity and another 2 billion or more have inadequate access to power. A key goal of the Copenhagen accord of 2010 is to provide energy to these impoverished populations. Coal is the only fuel that can sustainably meet growing global demand at such a scale.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/4/king-coal-reigns-as-global-powerhouse/#ixzz2MiyXSBp0

 

[Mr. H.]

RIGZONE - Proposed Arctic Drilling Regulations Aim to Protect with Costly Price Tags

A list of regulations proposed by the US Department of the Interior for Arctic drilling could make exploration financially out of reach.

Doesn't look like the White House is committed to jack shit.

 

[Old Rocks]

Shell has already discovered how fickle the Arctic Ocean is.