Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Oil Drilling News


GULF OIL SPILL - THE AFTERMATH


Gov. Jindal lists $533 million in projects for BP to finance after Gulf oil spill

"Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday unveiled a $533 million list of projects the state wants BP to finance out of the $1 billion the company has promised as an advance payment for restoration of damages to natural resources caused by last year's massive oil spill.  "BP talked about making it right," Jindal said at a news conference at the Port of New Orleans headquarters, surrounded by coastal parish leaders and state legislators. "This is the next step they can take to help us to restore our coast and truly show they are serious and they are committed about making it right and beginning to restore some of the damage along our coast."

A year later, Gulf Coast still coming to terms with oil spill
"Some can't quite bring themselves to believe government assertions that the spill didn't do as much damage as first feared. Others don't believe assurances that the seafood is safe to eat. Everywhere, people expressed fear that oil still lurks deep in the Gulf and that a sizable hurricane could spit it back onshore. [...] Across the Gulf, state economists are still tallying lost sales taxes, fishing license revenue and other data to determine how much each state lost during the 87 days — from April 20 to July 15, 2010 — that the oil spewed into the Gulf. Analysts suggest that it could take years to fully detail the economic and environmental effects of the disaster."

OIL/ENERGY POLICY


House Republicans seek to block wider enforcement of offshore drilling rules

"House Appropriations Committee Republicans are seeking to prevent the Interior Department, at least for now, from expanding the enforcement of offshore drilling regulations to include contractors." (like, for instance, Halliburton or Transocean)

FLORIDA

Offshore drilling issue rears its ugly head again

Upon April's one-year anniversary of Deepwater Horizon explosion and the beginning of the massive Macondo oil well leak into the Gulf of Mexico, we posed this question; Will the lessons from this catastrophe live long, or will they be lost amid greater concern for the economy? 

We now have an answer. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, it's the wrong one -- coincidentally, coming close to Friday's anniversary of the capping of the well. 

Both Gov. Rick Scott and Senate President Mike Haridopolos signaled their intention to pursue oil drilling in state waters several weeks ago as part of a comprehensive new energy policy.


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