Monthly Archives: August 2017

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Thursday came out against expanding offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean waters off the coast of his state.

McAuliffe had previously said he could supportdrilling near Virginia on the condition that the federal government expand a royalty sharing program that would supply coastal states with revenue from drillingoperations.

But, in a letter to Interior Department officials and a statement released Thursday, McAuliffe said he doesnt believe the Trump administration will agree to such a plan, and he said he opposes oil and natural gas drilling in the Atlantic without one.

President Trumps proposal to end the revenue sharing agreement with the Gulf States is a clear indication that we cannot trust the president to give Virginia its fair share of the revenues that would result from offshore exploration, McAuliffe said in a statement, noting a provision in Trumps budget proposal that would end a revenue sharing program in the Gulf of Mexico.

Additionally, the presidents administration is actively working to cut funding from the very agencies that would be charged with protecting Virginias coastal environment in the event that exploration went forward, he added.

McAuliffes announcement comes as the Interior Department finishes hearing comments on a proposal to reopen the Outer Continental Shelf leasing program for oil and gas drilling.

The current drilling plan, finalized during the Obama administration, blocks drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, though President Trump has indicated he would like to explore for oil there.

The Virginia Petroleum Council said Thursday it would be short-sighted to block offshore drilling near the state.

As the governor has previously stated, safe and responsible energy development off the coast of Virginia would bring millions, and potentially hundreds of millions, of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs to the Commonwealth, Miles Morin, the groups executive director, said in a statement.

But environmentalistsbacked McAliffes position, nothing that other Atlantic coast governors have spoken out against drilling, as well.

He joins communities up and down the coast, business leaders and other elected officials in understanding that offshore drilling is a bad deal for our coast, said Sierra Weaver, the head of the Southern Environmental Law Centers Coast and Wetlands Program.

Once again, the coast has spoken. Its time for Washington to listen.

Updated at 5:02 p.m.

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Virginia governor opposes offshore drilling plan - The Hill

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Crews have widened the search area to look for five Army aviators after aUH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed approximately two miles west of Kaena Point.

With the search now in its second full day, the area has expanded to as much as 50 miles offshore due to swift and dynamic currents in the area.

This is normal. Search areas do expand, said Lt. Scott Carr, U.S. Coast Guard 14th District.Any time youre in the water, you get drift, and so the currents go in different directions. Certain currents actually move north, certain currents move west, and thats going to expand your search area over time. So were very aware of that and we plan out ahead of it, and thats why it expands out.

Fixed-wing aviation assets are searching the leading edge while helicopters and vessels are concentrating efforts 15 to 20 miles offshore.

Two UH-60s from the 25th Infantry Divisions Combat Aviation Brigade were taking part in a routine training mission Tuesday night when one helicopter lost radio and visual contact with the other. The helicopter was reported missing at around 9:30 p.m.

Personnel at the joint forward incident command post at Haleiwa Boat Harbor continue to coordinate search-and-rescue efforts.

Officials say so far, none of the aviators have been located. Debris continues to be spotted and recovered in the area off Kaena Point, which include more helmets and pieces of the helicopter.

We constantly have assets in the air and on the water searching for the air crew and recovering debris. We believe its related to this incident and thats been ongoing for the last 24 hours, saidLt. Col. Curt Kellogg, 25th Infantry Division. Iwill continue to emphasize that this is still a highly active search-and-rescue operation. That is our focus and that is our mission bringing our soldiers home.

Debris from the crash should be considered hazardous material and should only be recovered by recovery teams with the proper training and personal protective equipment. The debris poses potential risk and could cause serious bodily harm due to sharp edges.

Based on current models, officials say debris could wash up on shore anywhere from Yokohama Bay and around Kaena Point to Haleiwa.

Those who see or encounter debris consistent with this type of aircraft along the north and west side of Oahu are asked to report it to responders by calling the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade Staff Duty Officer at (808) 656-1080.

A safety zone extending out in a five nautical mile (5.75 statue mile) radius from the point 21-27.919N 158-21.547W, geographically located roughly two miles northwest of Kaena Point, was established by the Coast Guard Captain of the Port Wednesday. No vessels or persons are authorized to enter this zone without prior approval from the Captain of the Port. A broadcast notice to mariners has been issued.

Kaena State Park trails are currently closed at this time.

Weather on scene is currently 17 mph winds with 4 foot seas and isolated showers.

See the article here:

Crews expand search area for five soldiers following offshore Black Hawk crash - KHON2

History tells us that when asset prices are high and we are worried about what will happen next, defensive stocks are the place to be. The usual advice is to take cover in boring blue-chips such as consumer staples and utilities.

While that has been a good call in the past, this time it is these same defensive names that have driven the market upwards. This makes sense: central banks suppressed the prospective returns on bonds by bidding up their prices, so investors who previously held bonds have been forced into equities. As reluctant equity investors, they have chosen the most bond-like stocks they could find the defensives.

In such a market environment, it is particularly important to focus on downside risk. Allan Gray and Orbis define risk as the permanent loss of capital. We position our portfolios to limit this risk. While this approach can lead to short-term underperformance, it is the best way to preserve and grow our clients wealth in the long term.

To achieve this, we look at every company we own in meticulous detail. We are wary of investing in companies with weak balance sheets that would not make it through a downcycle without raising capital or, worse, capitulating. While we pick the stocks we put into portfolios one by one, there are essentially four buckets of stocks that have emerged from our bottom-up decisions:

1. Stocks that are cheap because of company- or industry-specific concerns: These are classic Orbis stocks. Prices and investor sentiment are depressed due to country, industry or company concerns or a combination of the three. Russias Sberbank is a good example. At a time when financial services and Russia have both been out of favour, many investors have overlooked what is otherwise a well-run bank with a dominant competitive position.

2. Stocks with large cash balances that can be deployed in attractive opportunities if asset prices decline significantly:Multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway stands out as a good example. Warren Buffett has cash at the ready to snap up cheap assets as soon as they become available. We dont think the value of that cash is reflected in the share price.

3. Stocks undergoing transformations that should enhance intrinsic value:An example is Charter Communications, one of Orbiss largest holdings. The US cable telecom provider is leading the charge in consolidating the US broadband industry, with a savvy management team managing the acquisition process. We take a long-term perspective and dont think the valuation the market assigns to Charter and other such companies is reflected in their share prices.

4. Beneficiaries of innovation and change:This final bucket is for companies changing the way we do things using technology and innovation. Once again, we think the market is underappreciating the value of profitable, long-term growth something that is more evident when taking a long-term perspective. Orbis owns a number of e-commerce companies that fit this description, with Amazon being the best-known example.

Once you mix all these buckets together, you get a well-diversified group of companies that have been thoroughly analysed and have one thing in common: the price we have paid for their earnings and assets is well below what we think they are actually worth. We wont be right every time historically, our success ratio has been about 60% but paying a low price relative to fundamental value creates a margin of safety in case we are wrong.

And that is the key point: we believe underpaying for assets not only leads to superior returns in the long term, but also reduces the risk of permanent capital loss. Similarly, it is also important to avoid areas of the market that look particularly expensive, as is the case with the so-called defensive shares in the current environment.

Orbis will be speaking about investing offshore and the opportunities it can find in the current global environment at the upcoming Allan Gray Investment Summit on August 31 2017. This new one-day event aims to help investors protect and grow their wealth. For more information and to book tickets, visit http://www.investmentsummit.co.za.

Matthew Spencer is head of institutional clients at Orbis.

This article was paid for by Allan Gray.

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How to pick offshore investments for long-term wealth creation - Business Day (registration)

More than 100 South Atlantic coastal communities have come out against it, and it has near-universal opposition from environmental advocacy groups.

Opposition is also bipartisan, creating some uniquely unusual bedfellows. However, the Trump administration, along with many Republican elected officials, support offshore oil and gas drilling. These supporters see drilling and the seismic exploration that leads up to it as a way of expanding national fuel resources and enhancing job growth.

The Trump administration intends to turn back an Obama administration order that declared the coast from Virginia to Florida closed to seismic testing and the subsequent drilling. But there is a structured process to follow, so comments recently submitted come as part of the White Houses request for information on a new five-year regulatory program.

Closing out the comment period, environmental organizations once again reiterated their reasons for pushing back against the Trump administrations efforts.

There is overwhelming opposition to drilling from coastal communities, elected officials across the political spectrum, local businesses and commercial and recreational fishing groups, Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney Sierra Weaver said in a statement Wednesday. These individuals, communities and businesses have recognized that the risks of drilling outweigh any potential benefits. We will not gamble with our coast.

The SELCs submitted comments in PDF form run more than 30 pages, with footnotes and links to research data, studies and news reports.

Offshore oil and gas production has never been permitted in the Atlantic, and after extensive study and deliberation about the injuries our coast stands to suffer from such activity, it was flatly rejected less than two years ago, according to the SELCs comments. Opening the Atlantic to offshore oil and gas drilling poses a direct threat to the fragile and unique ecosystems of the Southeast coast and to the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on our clean coastal resources.

Georgia municipalities that passed resolutions against offshore drilling and seismic testing include Brunswick, Kingsland, St. Marys, Savannah and Tybee Island, among others.

The decision to deny seismic permits was based on sound science, policy and public input, Alice Keyes, vice president for coastal conservation with One Hundred Miles, said in a July statement. One Hundred Miles represents thousands of coastal advocates who stand together to support that decision.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-1 who represents the Georgia coast has repeatedly stood by his position favoring offshore drilling, however it is a policy not universal among coastal Republicans. For instance, the practice is opposed by U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, whose 1st District in South Carolina includes Beaufort, Charleston, Kiawah Island and Hilton Head Island.

Carter, though, defended his environmental policy reasoning during his February town hall at College of Coastal Georgia. He reinforced many of the same points when he returned to CCGA earlier this month. Carter said he grew up along the coast and takes pride in its natural wonder, but said many federal environmental regulations need to be reigned in.

Im not going to ever vote for something thats going to harm our environment, Carter said in February. I get it. I understand that.

The rest is here:

Comment period closes on Trump offshore drilling push - Brunswick News

RICHMOND, Va. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe announced his opposition Thursday to offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Virginia.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April to begin a five-year plan for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off the East Coast of the United States.

Governor McAuliffe submitted a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program and released the following statement:

Revenue sharing agreement is an essential precursor to moving forward on any offshore oil and gas exploration in Virginia. President Trumps proposal to end the revenue sharing agreement with the Gulf States is a clear indication that we cannot trust the President to give Virginia its fair share of the revenues that would result from offshore exploration. Additionally, the Presidents administration is actively working to cut funding from the very agencies that would be charged with protecting Virginias coastal environment in the event that exploration went forward. For these reasons, I do not support including the Commonwealth of Virginia in the new review of the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. My administration will continue to focus on diversifying Virginias economy and using our precious resources in a way that benefits the people of Virginia.

According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, Gov. McAuliffe joins North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster in voicing their opposition to offshore drilling.

RELATED:

Anti-drilling protestors gather in VirginiaBeach

Trump signs order looking to reverse Obamas ban on off-shoredrilling

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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announces his opposition to offshore drilling - wtkr.com