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Federal scientists: Limit offshore drilling plans

By GottaLaff

Once again, attempts are being made to eradicate the ugly, toxic BushCo stain:

The federal government's top ocean scientists are urging the Interior Department to drastically reduce plans to open the coast to offshore oil and gas drilling, citing threats to marine life and potentially devastating effects of oil spills in Arctic waters.

The recommendations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are informal and not binding. But if adopted, they would restrict development in some of the nation's most resource-rich untapped offshore areas and mark a significant departure from the pro-drilling policies of the George W. Bush administration. They also give added -- and official -- weight to environmentalists' concerns.

It's like being held captive and suddenly having the gag and shackles removed. Breathing again sure feels swell, doesn't it?

In a letter sent to Interior officials last month, NOAA recommended excluding large tracts of the Alaska coast, the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico from Interior's draft offshore drilling plan for 2010 to 2015.

NOAA recommends establishing buffer zones around the Southern California Ecological Preserve off Santa Barbara. In addition, it suggests that its broader recommendations, such as taking greater account of drilling's effects on marine life, could affect potential lease sales off California.

The agency calls for a ban on drilling in the Arctic until oil companies greatly improve their ability to prevent and clean up oil spills. And it asks Interior to delay new drilling plans until an Obama administration ocean policy task force completes its work late this year.

The comments, dated Sept. 9 and obtained by the Washington Bureau, were included in a letter to Interior officials from NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco. They include an often sharp critique of the offshore leasing plan, developed under Bush, that would open swaths of the California coast and other areas to new drilling.

NOAA says the leasing plan's assessment of the risks of drilling, such as oil spills, is "understated and generally not supported or referenced."

Isn't it amazing how wrong BushCo was about so many issues, yet how little resistance they got while in office? Cronyism sure comes in handy.

NOAA urges the Minerals Management Service -- the Interior division that handles offshore drilling -- to consider ocean ecosystems, coastal communities and other environmental factors when finalizing a leasing plan.

The agency stresses the challenges of cleaning up an oil spill in remote, icy waters, which NOAA says would be substantially more difficult than cleaning up a spill elsewhere.

The recommendations highlight the competing pressures on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he weighs whether to amend the Bush-era leasing plan.

Let's see: Profits for Big Oil v. the health of the planet.

Undoing BushCo: Buh-bye drill, baby, drill edition

By GottaLaff

First Secretary Ken canceled leases to drill in Utah. Now this good news story:

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday moved away from "drill-only" energy policies as he blocked a last-minute attempt by the administration of George W. Bush to push through the sale of offshore leases to gas and oil companies.

"On January 16, the last business day of the Bush administration, the administration proposed a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing," Salazar told a news conference.

What Salazar called a "midnight action" by the previous administration favored big oil while ignoring developers of renewable energy. [...]

Salazar also decried the previous administration's decision to give the public just six weeks to comment on the proposal.

"It was a process rigged to force hurried decisions based on bad information ... a process tilted toward the usual energy players while renewable energy companies and the interests of American consumers and taxpayers were being overlooked," Salazar said.

"We need to set aside the Bush administration's midnight timetable for the plan," he said, ordering a six-month extension for the public hearings, putting the deadline back from March to September.

The administration of President Barack Obama, who has pledged to make government transparent and inclusive, would hold meetings in the four regions affected by the offshore lease proposal, Salazar said.

And the new interior secretary has commissioned a report from the US Geological Survey and the Minerals Management Survey (MMS) which would "assemble all the information we have about offshore resources, conventional and renewable."

Salazar's promises to change the way the United States forges its energy policies followed on from action he took last week to block the sale of exploration contracts to gas companies on wilderness land in Utah.

At least it's a step away from the onslaught of those last minute ugly Bush stains. Let's remember these welcome departures from BushCo's destructive policies when we stress over some of the ObamAdministration decisions that disappoint us.

White House Press Corp briefing: Interior Secretary Salazar edition

By GottaLaff

My patented, award-winning, internationally acclaimed quick notes:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is answering questions at the White House daily briefing session. The offshore drilling expansion, he says,will have to fit with Obama's overall plan.

Re: Bush's executive orders about drilling on federal lands: There are a lot of midnight hour Bush regulations, and they're "on the table and we're looking at them." Some will be kept in place, some won't. It's only been a week. But as for the drilling approach, it has to be done with the right kind of balance, and fit with the plan.

Re: Corruption in the department: There were 3 investigations by the Inspector General. Two dealt with gifts, sex, drugs taking place in government buildings. Tomorrow there will be announcements about those.

Robert Gibbs is up. President Obama is going to Canada on Feb. 19. Questions:
Pentagon meeting today: Obama will speak with all the commanders to get their perspective. The SOFA puts an end date in Iraq. It's no longer "whether", but "how and when", but Obama wants to protect the troops. Today they will discuss Afghanistan. Our forces are stretched too thin. Obama will speak soon about all of this.

Afghanistan: The policy review isn't completed yet. Longterm development in Afghanistan and in the region is being discussed.

I'll update more when I can.

Ethics in government, Ed Henry: Geithner is from Goldman Sachs. Doesn't that punch a hole in what Obama signed?

Gibbs: Ethics and transparency executive orders that were signed the first day institute a policy unlike any other in any administration in the history of our country. But no policy is going to be perfect, as Obama said. Obama didn't take money from lobbyists or PACS... not perfect, but a step in the right direction. There are good public servants who, via stringent ethics requirements, will be part of this government. We have the toughest policies in the history of U.S.

Ed Henry: But there are waivers.

Gibbs: Let's caution.. look at how many waivers we have. The policy we have is the strongest ever. That speaks for itself. It makes sense, think tanks have said, to have a limited number of waivers.

Ed Henry: Mitchell... How can he go to the mideast?

Gibbs: Let's not misconstrue. Is he a lobbyist?

Ed: Not a registered lobbyist. This firm is making money...

Gibbs: To lobby the federal gov't. you have to be registered. [now another reporter is pushing this. Gibbs is repeating his answers] Bottom line: We have the strongest policy in history of the country.

Tax cuts, economy: Let's focus on the spending that will put people back to work, not on the tiny percentage of programs.... [sorry, missed the rest... now he's talking about unemployment numbers] Let's look at the [bigger picture]. It's like trying to guess the score after the 3rd inning. CEOs today said we can't afford to wait. Focus on this bill, moving the economy forward, money will be spent in the first 18 mos., jobs will be created, reregulation...

Chip Reid: Obama was well-received, he talks more like a R than a D, as they said. But he's had no effect on the number of votes.

Gibbs: This is a many-day process. There will be votes tonight, next week, weeks after that. We will have a bipartisan proposal to get the economy moving again. Let's not stop after the 3rd inning. It's a long process. The three or so hours, Obama feels, were well-spent yesterday. It was not a p.r. stunt, the quotes are, it was sincere. And they're right. Listening is important as we focus on the many pieces of legislation...

Chip: Cocktail party tonight, what's the genesis of that idea? The number of guests is split equally among Rs and Dems. Is that how it will be?

Gibbs: He accepted the offer to come to Capitol Hill yesterday. As for the ratios of tonight, I don't know. We have an equal number of leaders. He looks forward to establishing a strong working rel'ship with them. He understands that both he and Congress will be judged by what they do for the American people.

Chuck Todd: TARP is hundreds of billions short.

Gibbs: I didn't see that report before I came out here. Obama's considering a series of proposals. He spoke to Volker today about financial re-regulation. The CBO said without stimulus, the recession will be the largest since the Great Depression [paraphrased, hopefully accurately].... One aspect of the plan alone will not address the crisis. Each of the legs needs to be addressed. There is agreement in Congress about that, that we have to work together.

The ugly Bush stain: Endangered Species Act edition

By GottaLaff

I guess using Shout didn't work on this one yet. What passes for New Rules are nothing more than toxic tailpipe emissions billowing from multiple Bush orifices, including the hole in his tiny little head:

The Bush administration on Thursday eliminated 35-year-old regulations in the Endangered Species Act that required an independent scientific review of proposed federal projects to determine whether they imperil protected plants and animals.

Instead, federal agencies undertaking projects like road and power plant construction or oil and gas drilling will make their own assessment. Without the independent reviews, such projects could be accelerated.

As part of the changes announced by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in the final days of the Bush administration, the department finalized an interim rule that allows oil and gas drilling in polar bear habitat off Alaska's coast. The rule change is designed to prevent the Endangered Species Act from being used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, essentially making climate change policy. [...]

H. Dale Hall, director of Fish and Wildlife, said he had concerns about how fast the estimated 235,000 public comments were processed. Staff assigned to the job spent eight hours a day tabulating the comments. Working under strict time restraints, agency employees had nine seconds to read each letter, according to one calculation.

Officials said that more than 200,000 of the comments opposed the rule change. [...]

President-elect Barack Obama said he would reverse the rule changes, as have some members of Congress. But that requires a lengthy rule-making process. In the House, members can invoke the rarely used Congressional Review Act to overturn the regulations.

I'm sure Also Palin is thrilled. She was never a big fan of polar bears.

John Sidney McCain's Daddy Yankee confusion

By GottaLaff

How typically embarrassing. Fill 'er up!

Maybe someone should tell Senator John McCain that Daddy Yankee’s big reggaetón smash from a few years back, “Gasolina,” is not exactly about off-shore oil drilling.

Sid. Listen to me. The kind of drilling Daddy Y is endorsing puts a whole new spin on whatcha call yer pumping and gushers.

The two men appeared here at Central High School this morning, where Mr. McCain was endorsed by Mr., er, Yankee. [...]

Daddy Yankee, a native of Puerto Rico, become a crossover hit a few years ago when his song “Gasolina” brought reggaetón , a Spanish-language spinoff of dance-hall reggae, to a wide audience. Although its catchy refrain, “Dame mas gasoline,’’ or give me more gasoline, fits in nicely with Mr. McCain’s “drill here, drill now” message these days, it is usually understood as a double entendre that has little to do with fossil fuels.

I beg to differ. It has everything to do with J Sid's, er, fossil fuels. But then, what does this (and this), say about his family values?

Off topic, but about that straight talk:

The event here was originally billed as a press conference. But Mr. McCain, who has said he would have press conferences as often as every week as president, has now gone nearly two weeks without taking questions from the national press corps. He is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.’’

But he's not a celebrity.

Asked on the plane what “Gasolina” is about, he smiled and said, “Energy independence.”

Methinks old El Sid needs mas gasoline. His tank's been empty for years.

"Black is the new green"

By GottaLaff

Black is green. Up is down. Dirty is clean. Bush is Gore.

Speaking to USA Today, Gregory Boyce, CEO of Peabody, the world’s largest coal company, “shrugged off any worries” about coal’s enormous greenhouse gas emissions or moves to make energy more environmentally friendly, declaring the U.S. would never move away from coal [...]

“There’s a perception out there that coal is dirty, and we have to change that,” he adds, noting that coal plants already have cut emissions of some pollutants and boosted efficiency to slash CO2 discharges. “Black is the new green.“

Though Peabody is swimming in green — with profits soaring so far this year to $290 million — it’s a lie to suggest coal is somehow clean. Burning coal “adds a significant amount of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere per unit of heat energy, more than does the combustion of other fossil fuels.” What’s more, though Boyce boasts of a $9 million investment into “clean coal” technology, he fails to note that the coal industry’s largest front group has vowed to pour $40 million into efforts to block climate change and alternative energy legislation.

And guess who contributed to Newt Gingrich's American Solutions for Winning the Future, the 527 corporation promoting the "Drill Here, Drill Now" campaign? Right.

U.S. Interior Department sued over Wyoming drilling

By GottaLaff

Keep shoving ANWR, coastlines, and other potential drilling sites down our throats, BushCo/McCainCo, because it's obvious that the fragile environment will be preserved, just as it has in Wyoming. Ooops:

As President Bush called for increased oil and gas drilling in the Rocky Mountain West and offshore, an environmental group launched a legal battle Wednesday against the Interior Department, saying the agency broke its promise to limit environmental damage from natural gas and oil development on the Pinedale Anticline, one of the country's top reserves. [...] The suit alleges the [Bureau of Land Management], a division of the Interior Department, "failed unequivocally" to comply with its plans to monitor and mitigate the effects of gas and oil drilling on wildlife across the Anticline and violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

See how carefully those Tiptoey Drillers tread on pristine land? Those tiny little footprints of Big Oil couldn't hurt a fly! But mule deer and antelope? That's another story:

The Bush administration has highlighted the Anticline, a scrub-land mesa south of Jackson, as a model for oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountain West. But massive development of oil and gas fields there has pushed up ozone levels and broken up the habitat of mule deer, pronghorn antelope and sage grouse, according to a study by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the environmental group that filed suit.

Promises, promises:

"They haven't been following the processes that they put in place that would address impacts to the natural resources of the area and would comply with their obligations under federal law," said Katie McKalip, a spokeswoman for the conservation group.

Here's a thought: Alternative energy sources. I'm sure if BushCo looks hard enough, they could find someone, anyone, with enough expertise on the subjectformerVicePresidentandglobalwarming expertAlGore.

"We really minimize the amount of habitat fragmentation and surface disturbance due to the drilling . . ." Matheny said. "Since then, the deer population stabilized and has started to rebound when we operate this way."

A 2006 report showed the deer population declined 46% since 2000, the suit said. The study was industry-funded and performed by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc.

Al has a few ideas. All BushCo/McCainCo has to do is look him up.

Did McCain just lose Florida?

By GottaLaff

John Sidney McSludge may have flip-flopped once too often:

The conventional wisdom has been that Sen. John McCain holds a solid advantage in Florida over Sen. Barack Obama due to favorable demographics [...]

Perhaps that's why McCain felt it was acceptable to reverse himself this week and back lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling -- something Floridians have long fought. In doing so, McCain provided an opening for Democrats, who accused him of flip-flopping on the issue and bending to the desires of big oil companies.

I'm thrilled to plieces for McSludge. He feels all comfy and secure taking back what he said (again) and teaming up with President GW (GlobalWarming) (again) right out in public like that (again)! Now there's a man who reeks... of self-confidence. He's got the whole entire oil industry behind him! What could be more reassuring than that?

Picture the photo ops! McSludge clasping hands with President GW, grinning that campaign-hardened, frozen self-assured grin, posing proudly on a drilling platform surrounded by the gorgeous blue panorama of oceanic splendor.

Today, a new Quinnipiac poll actually shows McCain trailing Obama in Florida by four points. At best for McCain, Florida is going to be competitive and oil drilling will be a key issue in the campaign. At worst, McCain just seriously hurt his chances in a critical swing state.

He sure has a winner with that experience platform. If it keeps serving him this well, he'll have one more experience under his belt: Losing.