VIRGINIA
US Govt pushes any drilling off Virginia past 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2610221420100126?type=marketsNews
“The Obama administration put that plan under review when it came into office, and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he will decide by this summer whether the prior Bush plan will go forward. However, the department’s Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, said the proposed Virginia leasing plan will be delayed. The department may still decide against any energy exploration in the area.”
McDonnell concerned about a new possible delay in offshore oil drilling http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/01/post_557.html“Any delay beyond 2011 I would strongly oppose,” McDonnell said. “A delay of a year in the lease means yet another delay in the revenue…I am dead serious about trying to make Virginia the energy capital of the East Coast. We have every God-given natural resource that a state could want to make that happen and a big piece of that goal of energy independence is offshore production of oil, gas and wind and we don’t need federal government delays. We need cooperation.”
Thank You, Interior Department: Oil Drilling Off Virginia Delayed Indefinitely
http://rootswire.org/content/thank-you-interior-department-oil-drilling-virginia-delayed-indefinitely
FLORIDA
Candidates for governor agree offshore oil drilling a threat
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100127/BREAKINGNEWS/100127021/Candidates-for-governor-agree-offshore-oil-drilling-a-threat
Also: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20100127/CAPITOLNEWS/100127012/Poll-shows-McCollum-ahead-of-Sink-in-race-for-governor
“Proposals to drill for oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico are also pending before the 2010 legislative session. Sink said she is totally opposed while McCollum said he thinks three to 10 miles from the coast is too close, and that he does not like what he’s seen so far. “This is not a proposal for offshore drilling,” said Sink. “This is a proposal for near-beach drilling.” McCollum said, “I’m a huge skeptic” and that an oil spill “would just completely terrorize our beaches.””
Protect Florida’s Beaches with Hands Across the Sand (Audubon of Florida)
http://audubonoffloridanews.org/?p=3767
Also: Be a Part of “Hands Across the Sand” at Shell Point Beach
http://www.wakulla.com/Announcements/Community_Service/Be_a_Part_of_%22Hands_Across_the_Sand%22_at_Shell_Point_Beach_201001269423/
CALIFORNIA
More PXP Deal Fallout
http://www.calbuzz.com/2010/01/i-jerry-how-brown-campaign-will-be-run/
“After AP picked up our story last week on the once-secret offshore oil drilling agreement between PXP oil company and the Environmental Defense Center, Calbuzzer and campaign media consultant Don Ringe worked up an animated political cartoon featuring a monologue by “Mr. PXP” about the deal, which you can find here.
And special Calbuzz T-Ridge props to KQED’s John Myers, who closely questioned Schwarzmuscle about the issue at the governor’s Monday appearance at the Sacto Press Club and offers a smart take on the exchange on his blog at Capital Notes.
Two points worth noting here: a) As Myers reports, it’s interesting to see how breezily Arnold is in abandoning the notion of “principles” when the going gets tough; b) the governor clearly formulates the deal on T-Ridge as a “budget-driven” decision, not an energy vs. environment balancing act.
That is precisely the point that most concerns many environmental opponents of the deal: that California’s landmark environmental protections should be conditioned on the ebb and flow of the budget. In other words, any time Sacramento is in the red, just suspend the Coastal Sanctuary Act or AB 32 or local development guidelines and generate some fresh cash. Laissez les bons temps rouler.
The environmentalists who support the deal, like the EDC, do not agree with this fiscal argument of Arnold’s for the deal: to them T-Ridge has always been a pathway to end some offshore oil drilling permanently, essentially by horsetrading a lease to slant drill in state waters for a promise to decommission four operations in federal waters.
But: Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas.”
