OIL/ENERGY POLICY
US House Republicans blast proposed new fuel economy standards
"Democrats on the panel defended the administration. "Frankly, I have a hard time understanding what the majority's problem is with the fuel efficiency standards, or whose interests they are representing in opposing them," said Maryland's Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the subcommittee. "The new standards are critical to ensuring that consumers are getting the most for their money.""
OIL SPILL ALERTS
SkyTruth Launches Real-Time Pollution Incident Alert System
"SkyTruth has launched a new service on our website called SkyTruth Alerts where we publish environmental incident reports, as we get (and produce) them. We are starting off the service with reports collected from three sources - focused heavily on oil and gas drilling and related activities in the US. The sources are reported oil and hazardous materials spills from the National Response Center, pollution response and investigation reports from NOAA's Incident News, and incident analyses published on our own SkyTruth blog."
THE GULF
U.S. Acts to Fine BP and Top Contractors for Gulf Oil Spill
U.S. Allows BP to Return to Gulf-Lease Bidding
"The U.S. has decided to allow BP PLC to bid on new oil-drilling leases that go up for sale in the Gulf of Mexico later this year, less than two years after BP's Macondo well erupted and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history."
Gulf Coast Task Force Releases Ecosystem Restoration Strategy (EPA)
The public review and feedback period for this document is October 5-26.
THE NORTH SEA
