Energy Today - February 10, 2011
Rayola Dougher
Posted February 10, 2011
The Hill: Interior official says industry is making progress in preparation for oil well blowouts: The Interior Department's top offshore drilling regulator met with officials from major oil companies Tuesday and said he sees progress in their efforts to improve their capability to contain blown-out deepwater wells. Interior is demanding improved capabilities before it resumes issuing permits for deepwater oil-and-gas drilling, which was halted after last year's BP oil spill. Michael Bromwich, director of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said he met Tuesday with the Marine Well Containment Co., an Exxon-led consortium of major oil companies that also includes Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips and is developing enhanced systems that can be quickly deployed in the event of another blowout. "I think they are making progress and they answered some of the questions we had, and we will continue to work with them," Bromwich told reporters Wednesday. The Foundry: Two-Year Delay on EPA Climate Regs Is No Solution: The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) endangerment finding gives the agency justification to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, most notably carbon dioxide (CO2), under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The EPA already began targeting motor vehicles last year and will start regulating emissions from new power plants and major expansions of large greenhouse-gas-emitting plants (more than 25,000 tons of CO2 per year) this year. Several Members of Congress released or plan to release bills to either delay or prohibit the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases. Some ideas are better than others; unfortunately, the proposal garnering the most support in the Senate is also the least effective. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) wants to delay the EPA's ability to regulate CO2 for two years, but this is not the right approach for Congress to take. Voting for a two-year delay is nothing more than a political cover. It's not a step in the right direction and will do more harm than good by creating uncertainty and leaving the endangerment finding intact.
Additional Resources:
The Hill: OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Spending bill looms as venue for climate battle
ShopFloor.org: Revealing the Costs, Consequences of Regulation