By KEVIN WADLOW   kwadlow@keynoter.com

Posted – Saturday, April 17, 2010 06:00 AM EDT

A new oil-drilling report commissioned for the Florida House of Representatives describes the risk for oil operations in state waters as “serious but manageable.” The 177-page report, written by consultants for Willis Structured Risk Solutions of London, was released April 9.

On Friday, a House energy-policy committee was expected to introduce a bill that would allow oil exploration and drilling in state waters.

“Risk of damage to natural and human habitats from hurricanes alone dwarfs the [oil-drilling] risks we have uncovered,” says the Willis report. It acknowledges the Florida Keys reef stands out as an area of particular environmental sensitivity.

“As one moves [south] along Florida’s Gulf Coast … the coastline and nearshore areas become increasingly sensitive to prospective oil and gas activities,” says the report.

Reef Relief policy advisor Paul Johnson praised technical aspects of the Willis report, but said it does not go far enough to highlight the risk to Keys and South Florida waters.

“Even if the risk is low, it’s inappropriate to go anywhere in South Florida,” Johnson said. “The environmental and social consequences of a spill are so enormous that South Florida [drilling] should be off the table until the risk is zero.”

Other drilling opponents in South Florida were unmoved by the report.

“One spill can end it all,” said Jonathan Ullman, an Everglades specialist for the Sierra Club in Miami.

Ullman pointed to a months-long major oil spill from a drilling platform in Australia’s Timor Sea that caused “devastating effects” to the marine environment there.

“If you put the submerged state lands on the market to the high bidder, an oil spill is not a matter of if but when,” Ullman said.

Johnson said from Tallahassee that even if the House bill is introduced, it appears unlikely that a companion bill will be passed by the Florida Senate.

A Senate bill on oil drilling has made little headway since being introduced March 11. The legislative session ends April 30.

“There’s not enough time and not enough interest on the Senate side for anything to go through this year,” Johnson said.

But in 2011, drilling advocates will take leadership positions in both the Senate and house, he said.

An April 6 spill from a crude-oil pipeline off Louisiana should serve as a warning, say Florida conservationists. The U.S. Coast Guard said the estimated 18,000 gallons of crude oil affected “an area of approximately 160 square miles,” including portions of the Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

“Introducing a bill to allow oil drilling in our nearshore waters in the midst of Louisiana’s ongoing oil spill cleanup is a twisted bit of irony,” said Mark Ferrulo, executive director of Progress Florida.

Several Monroe County groups — including the Key West City Commission, the Key West Chamber of Commerce and the Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council — have passed resolutions calling for continued bans on Gulf drilling.

“Despite advances in oil-drilling technology, there is no positive assurance that catastrophic damage to our coastline, beaches, plants and fish could be avoided during normal operating conditions or during storm situations,” says a Key West city resolution from November.

A federal plan unveiled March 31 proposes to open areas of the Gulf of Mexico that had been closed to oil exploration for decades.

Although President Obama and other officials said the areas lie at least 125 miles off Florida’s coast, they later acknowledged the draft zones come much closer to Dry Tortugas National Park and the Tortugas Ecological Reserves of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/house-will-wait-till-next-year-to-push-574191.html

Palm Beach Post:  House will wait till next year to push offshore drilling plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 6:17 p.m. Friday, April 16, 2010
Posted: 5:24 p.m. Friday, April 16, 2010
TALLAHASSEE – The House sponsor of legislation that would lift a ban on offshore drilling in Florida’s state waters said Friday he was dropping the effort for this year but would try again in 2011.

Rep. Dean Cannon made the announcement as a committee he chairs began reviewing a draft that had yet to be filed with just two weeks left in the 60-day legislative session.
It would have allowed drilling rigs as close as three miles from shore on a temporary basis. Permanent rigs or platforms would have had to stay at least six miles away.

“It is not the right time to vote on this issue,” said the Winter Park Republican. “I haven’t seen any evidence that would suggest that our counterparts in the Senate have an appetite for this issue this year.”

Instead, he plans to use the draft as a starting point next year when he’ll preside over the House as speaker if Republicans retain their majority as expected.

He’ll also have a powerful partner. Sen. Mike Haridopolos, an Indialantic Republican who has been leading the push for offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the other chamber, has been designated as Senate president for 2011-12.

Cannon’s draft bill would allow drilling in state waters that extend about 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico and some three miles into the Atlantic Ocean.

It would not affect federal waters farther from shore. President Barack Obama recently announced plans to lift drilling barriers there. He wants to open up the Atlantic from Delaware to central Florida and plans to ask Congress to repeal a ban on drilling in the gulf within 125 miles of Florida’s beaches.

Cannon sponsored a similar bill that passed in the House late in last year’s session. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, was cool to the idea and it was not taken up in the Senate.

Proponents said drilling can be done safely to help reduce dependence on foreign oil while providing the state with a new source of revenue.

Opponents said it still wasn’t worth the risk to Florida’s environment and tourism industry nor would it provide the state with a significant boost to either its economy or treasury.

Thanks to Richard Charter as ever!

http://cbs4.com/wireapnewsfl/House.sponsor.drops.2.1636485.html
CBS Channel 4  Florida AP News

Sponsor Drops Fla. Offshore Drilling Plan For Now
BILL KACZOR, Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – The House sponsor of legislation that would lift a ban on offshore drilling in Florida’s state waters said Friday he was dropping the effort for this year but would try again in 2011.

Rep. Dean Cannon made the announcement as a committee he chairs began reviewing a draft that had yet to be filed with just two weeks left in the 60-day legislative session.

It would have allowed drilling rigs as close as three miles from shore on a temporary basis. Permanent rigs or platforms would have had to stay at least six miles away.

“It is not the right time to vote on this issue,” said the Winter Park Republican. “This is a bicameral process and I haven’t seen any evidence that would suggest that our counterparts in the Senate have an appetite for this issue this year.”

Instead, he plans to use the draft as a starting point next year when he’ll preside over the House as speaker if Republicans retain their majority as expected.

He’ll also have a powerful partner. Sen. Mike Haridopolos, an Indialantic Republican who has been leading the push for offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the other chamber, has been designated as Senate president for 2011-12.

Haridopolos would replace Senate President Jeff Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican who is leaving the Legislature to run for chief financial officer.

Cannon’s draft bill would allow drilling in state waters that extend about 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico and some three miles into the Atlantic Ocean.

It would not affect federal waters farther from shore. President Barack Obama recently announced plans to lift drilling barriers there. He wants to open up the Atlantic from Delaware to central Florida and plans to ask Congress to repeal a ban on drilling in the gulf within 125 miles of Florida’s beaches.

Cannon sponsored a similar bill that passed in the House late in last year’s session. Atwater was cool to the idea and it was not taken up in the Senate.

The Select Policy Council on Strategic & Economic Planning agreed to send a report on the issue to Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, that he can forward to his successor – Cannon.

The panel first took public testimony, again hearing the usual arguments.

Proponents said drilling can be done safely to help reduce dependence on foreign oil while providing the state with a new source of revenue.

Opponents said it still wasn’t worth the risk to Florida’s environment and tourism industry nor would it provide the state with a significant boost to either its economy or treasury.

Jay Liles, representing the Florida Wildlife Federation and Apalachicola Riverkeeper, said Florida instead should do more to promote renewable energy.

“This bill will rely on false promises of energy independence based on hope-for bonanzas,” Liles said. “If we can create more jobs, if we can grow a stronger economy by supporting renewable energy in a stronger fashion could we not forgo or at least stall the decision to go into our natural resources by drilling near shore?”

Florida Petroleum Council executive director Dave Mica spoke in favor of the bill. Mica acknowledged drilling in state waters was not the answer to energy independence or full employment but he argued it was part of the equation.

He credited the Legislature’s examination of the issue with persuading many Floridians to drop their long-standing opposition to drilling.

“We’ve won an awful lot of brains by this discussion,” Mica said. “We’ve still got some hearts to go.”

special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/542033.html?nav=5011
Williamsport Sun Gazette
Williamsport, PA
Gas industry’s potential impact on the environment discussed at public hearing here
By DAVID THOMPSON dthompson@sungazette.com
POSTED: April 14, 2010
State Rep. Rick Mirabito, D-Williamsport, top photo, looks on as state Rep. Marc Gergely, D-White Oak, asks a question during the state House Democratic Policy Committee hearing on environmental issues of the Marcellus Shale and the Chesapeake Bay on Tuesday at Lycoming College.

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette
While few people are questioning the enormous economic impact of developing the natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale, the gas industry’s potential impact on the environment is generating a lively debate.
That debate came to Lycoming College Tuesday during a public hearing by the state House Democratic Policy Committee.

The event, which mostly focused on environmental issues related to gas exploration, and to a lesser extent, the Chesapeake Bay, was co-chaired by state Reps. Rick Mirabito, D-Williamsport, and Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster.
Also sitting on the panel was state Rep. Mike Hanna, D-Lock Haven. Hanna said he supports a moratorium on leasing state land until the full impact of the gas industry is known.

A diverse group of speakers provided testimony regarding the Marcellus Shale during the near four-hour session.

Scott Perry, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, discussed the agency’s role in regulating the industry and efforts it is taking to ensure gas development is done with minimal impact on the environment.

Perry said that while other departments within the agency have reduced staff because of the state’s budget problems, the oil and gas bureau has added personnel.

In spite of that, the agency – and the industry – face challenges on what to do with water-borne pollutants, such as Total Dissolved Solids or “TDS,” generated by the industry.

Perry said TDS in gas industry wastewater has concentrations of salt many times that of sea water.

Technologies exist to removed dissolved solids from gas wastewater, he said. However, the capacity to treat expected wastewater volumes does not yet exist in the state, he said.

Perry said he favors imposing a severance tax on gas removed from the shale to provide funding to cover the cost of mitigating the impact of gas exploration on local communities and the environment.

Terry Bossert, vice president of government affairs for Texas-based Chief Oil and Gas, discussed his company’s efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of shale development.

Those efforts include developing an inspection program for every well the company drills, Bossert said. The company also is using more stringent standards for its well casing – alternating layers of steel pipe and cement designed to prevent the migration of gas into ground water aquifers – proposed, but not yet adopted, by the DEP.

“We always case our wells the way we’re going to under the new regulations,” he said.

The industry’s use of a single well pad to drill multiple wells reduces land disturbance, he said.

“It would be foolish to say we could develop the Marcellus Shale and not have any impact on the environment,” Bossert said, adding that all human activity comes with some degree of environmental impact.

Bossert said the gas industry is well-regulated in Pennsylvania. His company deals with many agencies, including the DEP, Susquehanna River Basin Commission, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Game Commission, Fish and Boat Commission and Army Corps of Engineers.

“We’ve even dealt with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,” Bossert said.

The latter agency came into the picture when Chief was building a pipeline and came across an old abandoned still, he said.

The one thing the industry needs from regulatory agencies is “consistency from region to region and project to project.”

Bossert said he does not oppose a severance tax, but believes it is the wrong time to do it while the industry is investing millions of dollars in the early stages of Marcellus Shale development.

Jon Bogle, co-founder of local industry watchdog group Responsible Drilling Alliance, said air pollution may be the industry’s biggest health risk.

Bogle discussed a study by Dr. Al Armendariz, an environmental engineering professor at Southern Methodist University who now is an administrator with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The study, which was contested by the gas industry, showed that gas industry operations caused more smog pollution than all motorized vehicles and airport operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Bogle said.

Bogle also cited air and noise pollution issues that arose in Dish, Texas, a town in the Barnett Shale region.

His testimony included a recent story published in the Dallas Morning News showing most Barnett Shale facilities such as wells, condensate tanks and compressor stations emitted toxic chemicals into the air.

Bogle said that while air pollution may be the biggest health risk, it also may be the easiest pollution to control because of readily available equipment.
Also speaking were Eric Conrad, of the North Central Workforce Investment Board, and Thomas Beaudy, deputy director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

Beaudy discussed the industry’s need for water for gas drilling operations. The commission must approve water use for any Marcellus Shale drilling operation in the river basin.

According to Beaudy, the industry currently is using less than 1 million gallons of water per day. At full production, about 28 million gallons of water will be used per day, he said.

Also discussed during the hearing was the possible development of an industry-generated fund that could be used to deal with long-term environmental impacts discovered after the industry has left the area.

According to Mirabito, the hearing was part of an effort to “explore issues so we can get the facts on the table and make informed decisions.”
“We all need air, water and soil to survive,” Mirabito said. “We also need energy. We all drove here and we all took showers with water (heated) by hot water heaters.”