Daily Archives: May 8, 2017

Offshore drilling opponents in Florida are bracing for a potential fight with the oil industry over the future of drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Oil groups this week said they are eyeing potential exploration in the eastern Gulf, a prospect buoyed by the Trump administration's recent review of federal offshore drilling policies.

Federal law bars drilling within 125 miles of Florida's Gulf Coast. But with that ban expiring in 2022 and President Trump pushing for expanded oil development offshore, both sides are preparing for a battle.

Floridians understand that offshore drilling is a bad idea its just not right for us, said Holly Parker, the Florida regional manager for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental nonprofit.

Trumps April 27 order requires the Interior Department to reconsider the federal offshore drilling plan, which outlines oil lease sales for the next five years.

In 2006, Congress formally banned drilling within 125 miles of the Florida coast, a restriction that chafes drillers who want to explore an oil-rich section of the sea that contains up to 2.35 billion barrels of oil, according to federal estimates.

With that moratorium due to sunset in 2022 the same year the current five-year drilling plan ends drillers hope Trump officials will consider opening up the area for oil development or exploration.

The eastern Gulf of Mexico, as you look it from the energy and industry points of view, its one of the most logical next steps, said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), which supports offshore drilling.

You already have the industry in the Gulf: you have the companies, you have the infrastructure, you just take the logical step to look toward the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The sticking point for eastern Gulf drilling has always been Florida, for whom the specter of the 2010 BP oil spill disaster still looms large.Congressional opposition to drilling there is bipartisan.

Nelson, one of Congresss most aggressive foes of eastern Gulf drilling, said hes of course worried Trumps executive order will increase the possibility for drilling there. But he said opponents will raise concerns about drillings threat to Floridas tourism industry as a way to diffuse the push.

Its getting easier because our friends, bipartisan, in the Florida delegation are waking up to the fact of what happened by losing a whole tourist season when the BP spill was off of Louisiana and got as far east as northwestern Florida beaches, he said.

So in a way its easier because were now getting bipartisan support when in fact, back in 2006, it was just Sen. [Mel] Martnez [R-Fla.] and me we were fighting this battle alone."

Drillers and their supporters say they want to work with opponents on a plan to preserve something of a buffer zone near Florida while allowing for exploration in the eastern Gulf.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said a bill he introduced to expand drilling in the Gulf would prevent drilling within 50 miles of the coast.

Bill Nelson always wanted to say were about drilling off of Florida, well you gotta be kidding around about drilling off of Florida, but thats what he would say to kind of get people ginned up, Cassidy said.Its not part of our plan.

Oil groups say the eastern Gulf makes logistical sense for companies, given how much drilling infrastructure there is in other parts of the region.

We think that it would be essential, from an energy security standpoint, both for national security reasons and for the continuing demand for oil and gas that were going to see for a long time, for Interior to take a serious look at the eastern Gulf of Mexico," Erik Milito, the upstream and industry operations group director at the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters last week.

That argument doesnt satisfy opponents in Florida, who pulled out all the stops to combat eastern Gulf drilling last week.

After the House bill was unveiledon Monday, Nelsons office also released a letter sent to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) from the Pentagon that said the Department wants to maintain the drilling ban there.

The military uses the eastern Gulf as a training ground, and Florida hosts many Navy and Air Force bases.

The moratorium ensures that these vital military readiness activities may be conducted without interference and is critical to their continuation, A.M. Kurta, the acting under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in the letter.

Surfriders' Parker said that activists have a well-worn game plan they plan to employ against offshore drilling, using a combination of arguments opposingthe drilling from ecological, economic and military standpoints.

Were very disappointed in the executive order, but we fought it before and were ready and willing to fight it again, she said.

We have been fighting against offshore drilling forever. Its not new to us, and its something that Floridians are really committed to.

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Offshore drilling opponents gear up for Gulf fight - The Hill

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Scientists track porpoises to assess impact of offshore wind farms ... Science Daily A new study is the first in a series to understand how marine mammals like porpoises, whales, and dolphins may be impacted by the construction of wind farms ... Ocean City plays far-shore card - Offshore Wind | reNEWS ...reNews all 2 news articles »

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Scientists track porpoises to assess impact of offshore wind farms ... - Science Daily

The fishing industry is worried the first offshore wind farm to come online in the U.S. will ruin their way of life and kill jobs.

An offshore wind turbine three miles off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, will kill large numbers of fish and potentially drivehundreds of small coastal enterprises out of business, according to a fishing industry representative. Fishermen fear offshore wind turbines will continue to pop up along Atlantic Coast, eventually make it impossible to be a commercial fisherman.

This will absolutely cost jobs in the U.S., Bonnie Brady, director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. If New York Governor [Andrew] Cuomos administration gets what it wants from offshore wind thats thousands of fishing jobs. Itll rip the coastal communities apart.

Deepwater Wind (DW)powered up a nearby island from the Block Island turbines Tuesday. DW says it created 300 local jobs during the wind turbine construction process at Block Island.

Brady says New Yorks government is willfully ignoring fishing jobs in favor of the wind industry and thinks the consequences of Cuomos policy could spread economic devastation to fishermen well beyond the state.

Its not only New York jobs either, fishermen travel huge distances to fish off New York, Brady said. A Virginian fisherman could come up to New York to fish for scallops. The number one profitable fishing port in the nation is right around here and its for scallops. Another squid fishery would be heavily impacted by offshore wind. Youve got scallops, fluke, squid, herring, flounders and they all hang out in these areas.

The Block Island turbines are just the first offshore wind turbines to be installed. Cuomo committed the state of New York to using huge amounts of wind power 2030 in a State of the State speech in January,much of whichthe governor intends to generate using offshore wind.

Were having our traditional fishing grounds usurped by offshore wind energy, Brady said. We as stakeholders have been left out of the process byObamas Interior Department.

Block Island has messed up gill netters and trawlers,Brady said. Theyre not going to certain areas because its a risk to theboat. The five turbines they put in place there are ruining one of the most productive bottoms around.

Estimates from the liberal Brookings Institution suggest the U.S. fishing industry supports 1.5 million jobsand generated$90 billion annually.

These are great jobs, Brady told TheDCNF. You can make a really good living working on a fishery. It is a solidly middle class life and a really good trades-job. We have more growth potential for fishing jobs in the U.S. than anywhere else, but were being removed from our fishing grounds because of offshore wind.

Brady became involved in fisheries management issues after marrying a fisherman. She has been repeatedly told by wind power companies to catch fish somewhere else if offshore turbines aresuch a problem.

As fishermen we follow the fish, Brady said The fish move around but there are specific areas of the ocean where they go depending on the time of year and their migration. When a wind turbine stakes claim to a section of the ocean and says youll just have to go somewhere else they miss the fundamental truth of our industry. We cant go somewhere else if the fish arent there.

Although proponents allege offshore wind farms are good for the environment, wind farms can be deadly for fish and other marine life and will ruin the fishing industry, Brady said.

DW plans to use loud pile driving to anchor the windmill to the seabed. Water magnifies sounds, and so underwater the pile driving noise can reach levels up to 220 decibels, according to Brady. To put that in perspective, 150 decibels of sound can burst human eardrums, and 185 to 200 decibels is the range usually considered to be the threshold for causing human death.

Biologically these things are a nightmare, Brady said. The only green about this project is that which lines investors pockets.

The sheer loudness of building the turbines can maim and kill fish. The noise produced when building the turbines poses a particular danger for fish with an organ highly sensitive to acoustics called a swim bladder, which adjusts a fishs level of buoyancy and determineswhether it floats or sinks.

There are a lot of fish in that area that need to be able to hear in order to communicate, but the sound levels of the normal operations of Block Island may be too loud for them to breed, Brady said.

Piledriving the ocean floor kills fish through pressure waves or by messing with their swim bladder, Brady said. The sound is super loud and can mess with marine mammals and fish. They take a 25 foot wide hammer and beat turbines two hundred feet into the ocean floor.

Construction and ordinary operations noises from the turbines can travel immense distances under water. This harms whales, dolphins, marine mammals, and fish which communicate with noisesin order to breed.For this reason, theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA)guidelines show that high noise levels can cause marine mammals like whales and dolphins to go deaf and disrupt their vocal communications.

The experience at the Block Island Wind Farm demonstrates that offshore wind and fishing can and do coexist in the ocean, Jeff Grybowski, DWs CEO, told TheDCNF.

Building turbines also damages the ocean floor and the habitat of fish, making it much harder to be a fisherman.

The widespread sedimentation and silt kills larvae, young fish, destroys benthic habitat and in some cases permanently alters it, said Brady, citing a scientific study by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to back up her claim. Submerged cables emit low-level electromagnetic frequency and magnetic fields that repel certain fish (cod), attract others (elasmobranchs-sharks and skates), and affect migratory patterns and the ability to source food if dependent on electric cue for prey.

Fishing continues to thrive at the Block Island Wind Farm without interruption, Grybowski said. In fact, there is evidence that fishing activity near the wind farm has increased because the presence of these new structures in the ocean attracts sea life. There is no restriction on fishing near the project.

DW has a commitment to environmentally responsible development on its website, claiming it takes action to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals during all of its pre-construction and construction activities.

As pioneers of the offshore wind industry here in the United States, we take our commitment to be a leader in responsible energy development very seriously,says a statement on DWs website. Deepwater Wind ensures that for each project under development, wildlife, the environment, or other users of the ocean wont be adversely impacted.

The American Wind Energy Association did not return requests for comment to TheDCNF on what these actives included or how they were addressing the concerns of fishermen about offshore wind.

When fully implemented, offshore wind is expected to cost four to six times more than traditional fossil-fuel based plants, according to Brady.

Offshore wind power is expensive because installing and maintaining any kind ofinfrastructure underwateris extremely difficult. The salt water of the ocean is incredibly corrosiveand makes operating such facilities difficult and expensive.

Despite the extremely highcost, federal officials want to power 23 million homeswith offshore wind by the year 2050.

If President Trump could talk to commercial fishermen hed be amazed at the regulatory burden and how little Governor Cuomo cares, Brady said. We need his help more now than ever.

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Wind Power Is 'Absolutely Costing Jobs' Of US Fishermen | The ... - The Daily Caller

On the eve of Sundays French presidential election runoff, establishment candidate Emmanuel Macrons campaign claimed he was targeted by a massive and coordinated cyberattack disclosing potentially damaging 11th hour information.

His campaign railed about hackers anonymously releasing emails, documents and other materials to sow doubt and misinformation, claiming:

Intervening in the final hour of the official campaign, this operation is clearly a matter of democratic destabilization, as was seen in the United States during the last presidential campaign.

Anonymous hackers released damning documents, emails and images, showing Macrons alleged involvement with La Providence, a Limited Liability Company in the Caribbean island of Nevis.

He allegedly created the firm as an offshore tax haven. Reportedly its connected to the Cayman Islands-based First Caribbean International Bank, earlier involved in tax evasion cases.

Leaked materials purport to show Macron hid unknown amounts of wealth offshore to avoid French taxes.

Macron denied stashing wealth secretly offshore, saying

I have never had accounts in any tax havens whatsoever, firstly because it is not in my nature and secondly because I have always wanted to return to the public domain.

His campaign claimed material released is part of a Russian effort to smear him in favor of Le Pen providing no evidence proving it because none exists.

On Friday, WikiLeaks tweeted

Who benefits? Timing of alleged dump is too late to hit vote but will surely be used to boost hostility to Russia & intelligence spending.

France votes on Sunday, Macron heavily favored to win. Will the damning dump materially affect the outcome? Well likely know shortly after polls close.

The NYT supports all deplorable establishment candidates in US-allied countries. Its editors accused Russia of meddling in Frances election, citing no evidence. None exists.

They claimed Putin favors Le Pen. Hed dearly like to see (Macron) weakened, they said calling the former neoliberal Rothschild investment banker/economy minister strong on maintaining Russian sanctions and favors strengthening the European Union.

Separately, The Times claimed

(g)roups linked to Russiahave previously been accused of trying to breach the Macron organization.

The self-styled newspaper of record cited unnamed security experts, saying they believe Russian hackers were behind the latest dump of damning Macron materials.

No evidence suggests Russian interference in foreign elections anywhere not Americas, Frances or others.

False accusations persist anyway, part of longstanding Russia bashing.

A Final Comment

On May 6, Frances Election Control Commission

ask(ed) the media, and websites in particular, not to report on the content of the (leaked Macron) data, stressing dissemination of false information is liable to fall within the scope of the law, in particular criminal law.

French oligarchs and aristocrats want neoliberal globalist Macron elected president on Sunday threatening to prosecute anyone publishing leaked defamatory information about him.

Suppressing free and open expression is a hallmark of police state governance.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [emailprotected].

His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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Macron Claims He Was Hacked, Alleged Macron Involvement in Tax Free Offshore Haven - Center for Research on Globalization

A coalition of environmental groups on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its efforts to expand offshore drilling, arguing the move violates the presidents legal authority, threatens a multitude of wildlife and could harm the fishing and tourism industries.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Alaska, comes days after President Trump signedan executive order aimed at jump-starting offshore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, as well as assessing whether energy exploration can take place in marine sanctuaries in the Pacific and Atlantic. The policy could open millions of acres of federal waters for oil and gas leasing, just months after President Barack Obama withdrew the areas from possible development.

At a signing Friday in the Roosevelt Room, Trump emphasized that the United States has abundant offshore oil and gas reserves and made clear his intention to tap them if possible. Were opening it up, he said.

Wednesdays lawsuit argues that Trumps executive order exceeds his constitutional and statutory authority. Itnotes that Obama used his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Acts to permanently end drilling in much of the Arctic and key parts of the Atlantic but says that no president has ever undone or reversed such a decision and that the law does not authorize the president to reopen withdrawn areas.

[Trump signs executive order to expand drilling off Americas coasts: Were opening it up.]

The permanent protections President Obama established for the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans were won with years of research, lobbying and organizing, Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement. Until Wednesday, his group had never filed a legal challenge. Offshore drilling and the associated threat of devastating oil spills puts coastal economies and ways of life at risk while worsening the consequences of climate change. Now, President Trump is trying to erase all the environmental progress weve made, and we arent about to go down without a fight.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, called Trumps order an example of his administrations single-minded focus on fossil fuel extraction at the expense of every other value.

Exposing the enormously sensitive ecosystems of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans to the risk of a catastrophic oil spill is playing roulette with the nations coasts, wildlife, birds and fish. It is also manifestly illegal, Clark said in an statement. No president has ever before tried to undo a previous presidents determination, made under a specific grant of authority from Congress, that ecologically sensitive offshore waters deserve protection from the risks inherent in oil drilling. We do not need and cannot use the oil that may lie under these waters if we ever hope to meet our nations commitment to addressing climate change.

Other groups joining the lawsuit include the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, the Alaska Wilderness League and the Wilderness Society.

A White House official on Wednesday said the administration is confident that President Trumps common-sense decision to boost our energy sector will be vindicated in the judicial process.

[Court freezes Clean Power Plan lawsuit, signaling likely end to Obamas signature climate policy]

Even Trump administration officials have acknowledged that it would take a couple of years or longer to rewrite federal leasing plans and open up areas of the Arctic and Atlantic to drilling. And if global oil prices remain low, that could deter investors from pursuing offshore drilling in the near term, despite the administrations efforts to make more areas eligible for development. That said, the administration and supporters of the presidents approach have argued that future oil demand and prices remain uncertain and that the country ought to keep open the option to drill offshore.

Last week, Vice President Pence described theexecutive order asan important step toward American energy independence that would generate additional U.S. jobs.

Wednesdays lawsuit marks the latest effort by activists to challenge the Trump administrations energy and environmental policies in the courts. Groups such as Earthjustice and others, for example, have filed suits over Trumps order to approve two pipeline projects andover an order aimed at opening tens of thousands of acres of public lands to coal leasing. They also have opposed other measures, such as efforts to roll back the Obama administrations key regulation to cut carbon emissions from the nations power plants and a move to delay the implementation of tougher standards to limit smog that were finalized in 2015.

Also Wednesday, the Sierra Club and other groups sued the head of Trumps Environmental Protection Agency over a recent decision to haltan Obama-era regulation aimed at limiting the dumping of toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury by the nations power plants into public waterways.

Beginning in 2018, power plants would have had to begin showing that they were using the most up-to-date technology to remove heavy metals including lead, arsenic, mercury and other pollutants from their wastewater. But EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced last month that the agency would postpone compliance deadlines for the regulation while it reconsiders the rule, which is also being challenged in a federal court.

These standards would have tackled the biggest source of toxicwater pollution in the country, and now the Trump EPA is trying to toss themout. Its indefensible, Pete Harrison, an attorney for Waterkeeper Alliance, said in a statement. The EPA didnt even pretend to seek public input beforeplowing ahead with this rollback that could allow millions of pounds of preventable toxicpollution to go into our water.

Read more:

Environmental groups sue Trump administration over offshore drilling - Washington Post

Emmanuel Macron has launched legal action over allegations that he holds an offshore account, which were raised by Marine Le Pen just days before the French presidential election.

She was accused of using fake news in a last ditch attempt to damage the frontrunners chances after challenging him over the claims during a televised debate.

The Paris prosecutors office said no one was named in Mr Macrons complaint, which has triggered an inquiry into the suspected spread of false stories aimed at influencing the election.

Ms Le Pen alluded to allegations that Mr Macron has an offshore account in the Bahamas, which appear to stem from an article published on the right-wing website Disobedient Media.

Asked on BFMTV on Thursday morning whether she had any proof to justify repeating the claims, the Front National politician admitted she did not.

Claiming she was not formally accusing Mr Macron of any wrongdoing, Ms Le Pen said: Ive just asked him the question. If I had proof, I would have claimed it yesterday."

Mr Macron has denied the accusations and said he did not have any account in the Bahamas or any other tax haven

Speaking on France Inter radio, he blamed Ms Le Pen for spreading fake news, adding: "All this is factually inaccurate."

His team said the former investment banker was the victim of a cyber misinformation campaign, although the original source of the claims remains unclear.

Some reports have cited intelligence sources as saying Russia is targeting Mr Macron in a campaign conducted online, while the California-based Disobedient Media attributed the claims to "leaked documents".

Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron will face each other in the second and final round of the French presidential election on Sunday, where the latest polls predict victory for the centrist candidate on 61 per cent of votes.

Additional reporting by agencies

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Emmanuel Macron launches legal complaint over offshore account allegations spread by Marine Le Pen - The Independent