Beware Beelzebub's Enticements! With Sen. Lindsey Graham Caving In and NOAA Weighing In, the Cumulative Attack On Alaska-US OCS Domestic Energy Gains Momentum!

LA Times, by Jim Tankersley and Josh Meyer. The federal government's top ocean scientists are urging the Interior Department to drastically reduce plans to open the coast to offshore oil and gas drilling, citing threats to marine life and potentially devastating effects of oil spills in Arctic waters. The recommendations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are informal and not binding. But if adopted, they would restrict development in some of the nation's most resource-rich untapped offshore areas and mark a significant departure from the pro-drilling policies of the George W. Bush administration. They also give added -- and official -- weight to environmentalists' concerns.   (Commentary: With NOAA ‘informally’ weighing in against OCS energy exploration and production the cumulative harm against America’s economy and national defense is increased.   ***   Politico.  The insidious nature of the anti-domestic energy bloc is awesome, we conclude, after today noting that Sen. Lindsey Graham has joined with Sen. John Kerry to propose a 'Cap and Trade' approach that will supposedly allow more oil and gas and nuclear development.  Presumably, the President's and Congress' withdrawal of the OCS moratoria areas a year ago should produce more domestic energy, too, except that the cumulative, administrative actions we have described work in symphony to thwart any meaningful, new domestic energy production.  One would warn Senator Graham to not be rope-a-doped into this Faustian bargain which will surely produce higher costs for the oil and gas industry and consumers and result in even less domestic development.  However, the promised support for oil and gas and nuclear will surely be blocked, after cap and trade passes, when the cumulative effect of the administrative actions we identify is even more fully focused against domestic energy production.  Beware Beelzebub's enticements.  -dh)

P.S.  Bloomberg.  Billionaire George Soros, looking to address the “political problem” of climate change, said he will invest $1 billion in clean-energy technology and donate $100 million to an environmental advisory group to aid policymakers.  Soros, 79, also will establish the Climate Policy Initiative, a San Francisco-based organization to which he will donate $10 million a year for 10 years.  “It will be part advisory service, part policy developer and part watchdog,” said Thomas Heller, who is heading the initiative. Heller is a professor at Stanford University Law School in Stanford, California, whose expertise is in energy law and regulation and environmental law.  Its goal is to look after the public interest as policies and programs are created to address climate change. The group will work in the U.S., Europe, China, India and Brazil, he said.  (We add to our list of cumulative attacks on domestic energy this new initiative and wonder if American companies are matching Soros' $100 million investment with support for pro-domestic energy advocacies.  We fear not.  -dh)   

 

Alaska Dispatch, by Rena Delbridge.  Cook Inlet Region Inc. proposes coal to gas plant.