from our “oh, swell *&^%” department….R. Charter

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65D56I20100614
Offshore drilling backlash may boost shale, oil sands

Alberta (Reuters) – The massive Gulf oil spill may hasten the development of shale gas and oil sands, North America’s two most important emerging energy sources.
The risk of pursuing deepwater oil reserves dwarfs the environmental concerns facing both onshore sectors.

Neither Canadian oil sands petroleum nor natural gas from U.S. shale beds will immediately substitute for delayed Gulf of Mexico crude output in the wake of a six-month drilling moratorium. Still, their development should speed up thanks to the search for less-risky energy sources.

“If offshore development is slower because of this accident, the implication is going to be that the world is going to need supply growth in other areas,” said Jackie Forrest, analyst with energy consultancy IHS CERA in Calgary. “So you might see more growth in oil sands and other sources of global supply.”

Both offer even more promise than the deep waters off the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Alberta’s oil sands are the largest source of crude outside the Middle East, with enough reserves to meet all U.S. demand for 25 years; shale beds beneath many U.S. states could meet the country’s natural gas needs for a century.

Both resources face environmental worries, yet they may be deemed lesser evils compared to the worst U.S. oil spill in history. The spill has officials reconsidering the drive to drill ever deeper in more difficult conditions and should result in tighter and costlier regulations.

“Both shale gas and oil sands have their own challenges but the problems we have seen in the Gulf could lead to a capital shift away from deepwater drilling and toward other sources,” said Robert Johnston, director of energy and natural resources for Eurasia Group in Washington DC.

Whatever the reservations about developing the new fuels, they are attractive as major new domestic energy sources that don’t risk fouling the ocean and would allow the United States to cut its dependence on imported oil, analysts said.

“I would expect to see more development onshore and less offshore,” said Benjamin Schlesinger, president of Benjamin Schlesinger Associates, an energy consultant.

IN SHALE WE TRUST

It’s neither a straight nor clear line from Gulf oil to other forms of energy to the north, yet it is important for energy markets wondering whether fallout from the BP spill will constrain future deepwater oil supply.

Even before the Gulf disaster, U.S. state and federal politicians were urging tighter regulation of shale gas drilling. Environmental groups and some neighbors of shale gas drilling operations fear that ground water is being contaminated with chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) process, which extracts the gas from shale a mile or more underground.

A bill in Congress would require drillers to publicly identify the chemicals they use in fracking. Drillers oppose this, saying they are reluctant to disclose proprietary information.

The so-called Frac Act would also give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the option of oversight of the drilling industry, currently regulated by the states.

The EPA is getting ready to conduct a national study of the safety of hydraulic fracturing. State regulators are cracking down on environmental violations in a bid to calm public fears while nurturing a growing industry that already has created thousands of jobs.

Fears over the safety of shale drilling mounted with the blowout of a Pennsylvania well on June 3, prompting state regulators to suspend drilling or fracking by the operator, EOG Resources Inc, amid a drilling boom in the state.

EOG said the cause appeared to be the failure of a seal on the blow-out preventer (BOP), not directly related to the fracking process. Still, the incident should prompt more questions about whether fracking is a safe process that prevents chemical contamination of ground water.
SANDS TAKE TIME

In the oil sands industry, opposition has intensified. Environmental groups such as Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace have mounted campaigns to put the international spotlight on the spread of toxic tailings ponds, high carbon-dioxide emissions and cutting of boreal forests.

Developers say they are working to develop technology to deal with these problems.

High costs and the long lead time for production have limited oil sands development, but it has accelerated with oil prices above $70 a barrel ensuring profitability for key projects. (Graphic: link.reuters.com/fyz89k )

Alberta’s energy regulator said last week that raw bitumen production from Alberta’s oil sands averaged 1.49 million barrels a day in 2009, a 14 percent increase from 2008 — despite a slowdown in planning after prices crashed in 2008.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said this week that oil sands output could double to nearly 3 million barrels a day by 2020.

Increases in pipeline capacity to the United States and plans to ship large volumes as far as the Gulf Coast were already in place long before the Gulf oil disaster.

Not all analysts were convinced that the Gulf spill would be so positive for oil sands and shale gas development.

“The environmental issues around shale gas pale in comparison with what’s happening in the Gulf,” said Bill Durbin, head of global markets research for the consulting firm Wood MacKenzie.

“But where you already have environmental concerns, those sources may be subject to greater scrutiny and higher costs.”

(Additional reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by David Gregorio)

Thanks to Richard Charter

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2010
 
 
WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to complete the membership of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling:
 
·        Frances G. Beinecke, Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
·        Donald Boesch, Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
·        Terry D. Garcia, Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
·        Cherry A. Murray, Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
·        Frances Ulmer, Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
 
The bipartisan Commission, established through an Executive Order, is tasked with providing recommendations on how we can prevent – and mitigate the impact of – any future spills that result from offshore drilling. The Council is co-chaired by former two-term Florida Governor and former U.S. Senator Bob Graham and former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency William K. Reilly
 
President Obama said, “These individuals bring tremendous expertise and experience to the critical work of this commission. I am grateful they have agreed to serve as we work to determine the causes of this catastrophe and implement the safety and environmental protections we need to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.”
 
President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key administration posts:
 
Frances G. Beinecke, Appointee for Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Frances Beinecke is currently the President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a non-profit corporation that works to advance environmental policy in the United States and across the world. Ms. Beinecke has worked at NRDC for 35 years, serving as executive director, associate director and deputy executive director. From 1974 through 1983, Ms. Beinecke worked as a coastal resource specialist in NRDC’s water and coastal programs, fighting to protect marine ecosystems from the impact of offshore oil and gas development and advocating for sound coastal land use. Ms. Beinecke currently serves on the Board of the World Resources Institute and the steering committees of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and the Energy Futures Coalition. She was a member of the Yale Corporation and currently serves on the advisory boards of the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science. She is the co-author of the book, Clean Energy Common Sense: An American Call to Action on Global Climate Change. Ms. Beinecke received a B.S. from Yale University and a M.F.S. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
 
Donald Boesch, Appointee for Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Donald “Don” Boesch is the President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, where he is also a Professor of Marine Science and Vice Chancellor for Environmental Sustainability for the University System of Maryland.  Dr. Boesch assumed the position of President in 1990.  >From 1980 to 1990, he served as the first Executive Director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and worked as a Professor of Marine Science at Louisiana State University.  Dr. Boesch is a biological oceanographer who has conducted research on coastal ecosystems along the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, Australia and the East China Sea.  A native of Louisiana, he has assessed the long-term environmental effects of offshore oil and gas development and multiple environmental problems of the Gulf Coast.  A pioneer in the study of the environmental effects of offshore energy development, Dr. Boesch edited the seminal 1987 work, Long-Term Environmental Effects of Offshore Oil and Gas Development. He has served as science advisor to many state and federal agencies and regional, national and international programs.  Dr. Boesch is also Chair of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council and a member of the National Academies Committee on America’s Climate Choices.  He holds a B.S. from Tulane University and a Ph.D. from the College of William & Mary.  Dr. Boesch was also a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia.
 
Terry D. Garcia, Appointee for Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Terry D. Garcia is currently Executive Vice President for Mission Programs for the National Geographic Society.  He is responsible for the Society’s core mission programs, including programs that support and manage more than 400 scientific field research, conservation and exploration projects annually.  Prior to joining the Society in 1999, Mr. Garcia was Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  In this role, he directed and coordinated U.S. coastal, ocean and atmospheric programs, including recovery of endangered species, habitat conservation planning, Clean Water Act implementation, development of the national marine sanctuary system and commercial satellite licensing.  From 1994 to 1996, he was General Counsel at NOAA and led the implementation of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Plan for Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska.  Before entering government service, Mr. Garcia was a partner in the law firms of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Hughes Hubbard & Reed.  Mr. Garcia has served on various boards and commissions, including the Institute for Exploration/Mystic Aquarium, the Amazonian Center for Environmental Education and Research, the U.S. National Committee for the Census of Marine Life and the Harte Research Institute of Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University.  He is also a trustee emeritus of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.  Mr. Garcia has also served on panels convened by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration. He holds a B.A. from American University and a J.D. from The George Washington University.
 
Cherry A. Murray, Appointee for Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Dr. Cherry Murray was appointed the Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences in July 2009, and is currently the Past President of the American Physical Society. Dr. Murray’s expertise is in condensed matter and materials physics, phase transitions, light scattering and surface physics, including the study of soft condensed matter and complex fluids, as well as the management of science and technology. Previously, Dr. Murray was Principle Associate Director (2007-2009) and Deputy Director (2004-2007) for Science and Technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Murray joined Bell Laboratories in 1978 as a Staff Scientist, marking the beginning of a career that culminated in her position as Senior Vice President for Physical Sciences and Wireless Research at Lucent Technologies (2001-2004). Dr. Murray was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, and to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. She has served on more than 80 national and international scientific advisory committees, governing boards, and National Research Council (NRC) panels, including chairing the Division of Engineering and Physical Science of the NRC, and serving on the visiting committee for Harvard’s Department of Physics from 1993 to 2004. In 2002, Discover Magazine named Dr. Murray one of the “50 Most Important Women in Science.” Dr. Murray holds a Bachelor of Science (1973) and a Ph.D. (1978), both in Physics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 
Frances Ulmer, Appointee for Member, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Fran Ulmer is Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), Alaska’s largest public university. In addition to serving as UAA’s Chancellor, Ms. Ulmer is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Arctic Climate Change and holds Board positions with the Alaska Nature Conservancy, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Prior to her appointment as Chancellor in 2007, Ms. Ulmer was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at UAA. During her more than 30 years of working in public service on the local, state, and national levels, Ms. Ulmer has helped to shape both public and environmental policy. As a state legislator, Ms. Ulmer served as a member on the Special Committee on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Claims Settlement. In addition, she was the first Chair of the Alaska Coastal Policy Council, was a member of Governor Tony Knowles’ Alaska Highway Natural Gas Policy Council and served for more than 10 years on the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. Ms. Ulmer served as an elected official for 18 years as the mayor of Juneau, as a state representative and as Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. Ms. Ulmer served as Director of Policy Development for the State of Alaska, managing diverse programs, including coastal management, intergovernmental coordination, and public participation initiatives. At the national level, Ms. Ulmer served as a member of the Federal Communications Commission’s State and Local Advisory Committee, the Federal Elections Commission’s State Advisory Committee and co-chaired the National Academies of Science’s Committee on State Voter Registration Databases. Ms. Ulmer earned a J.D. cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and has been a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/mms-06-14-2010.html
For Immediate Release, June 14, 2010
Contact: Mike Stark, Center for Biological Diversity, (520) 623-5252

TUCSON, Ariz.- Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has blasted an Interior Department proposal to allow the Minerals Management Service to continue to have environmental oversight of offshore drilling. Speaking on “Platts Energy Week” on Sunday, Babbitt said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s proposal doesn’t go far enough, likening it to “rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.” Babbitt suggests shifting oversight to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Center for Biological Diversity agreed that the MMS is grossly unqualified to provide critical environmental oversight of offshore work, as evidenced by the Gulf of Mexico spill disaster. In fact, MMS – an agency created by the stroke of a pen during the Reagan administration – has no inherent mandate from Congress to protect the country’s air, water and wildlife.

“This MMS is so corrupt it’d be hopeless to expect to it to provide any meaningful environmental regulation that does anything but give offshore projects the green light,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center.

Salazar has suggested dividing MMS into three separate divisions: drilling permits, revenue collection and safety enforcement. But the proposed reform does nothing to eliminate the close ties MMS has had – and the industry has exploited – for years.

“We need a much more fundamental shift than Salazar has suggested,” Suckling said. “Environmental regulation ought to be left with environmental experts, like the EPA, not with an agency that simply churns out drilling permits and collects revenue.”
###
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 260,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.defendersblog.org/author/dowrichard/

Yeah Richard; you’re our hero!  His comments bring up important info about coral reefs and oil spills…..DV