U.S. Feds Punish All For Misdeed of One - Canada's GHG Policy Comes Back to Bite It - Charlie Tobac Represented Dene on Mackenzie Pipeline and Other Issues

Comment: the Federal Administration's action to halt much of the Nation's OCS activity for 6 months--unrelated as it is to the BP Deepwater Horizon tragedy--is an immature response to problem solving.  By punishing economic enterprise in unrelated circumstances, the Administration is taking direct action to increase unemployment, decrease national security, bump oil prices, extend the economic crisis and diminish sorely needed oil and gas tax and royalty payments to the Federal government, including royalty shares to some adjacent states.  By punishing all students for the misdeed of one, a new high school teacher can taint the well of learning for the rest of the school year.  The Obama Administration has demonstrated similar inexperience and incompetence as it confronts the tragic Gulf occurrence by extending harm and economic malaise to Alaska and to innocent citizens nationwide.  -dh

(Note: This afternoon Obama's Interior Department {Deputy Director of BOEMRE, Walter Cruickshank and Senior Advisor to the Director, Tommy Beaudreau} announced the following features of the revised moratorium.  Suspending of additional activities to allow for implementation of safety measures for spill containment and response.  Suspension of all drilling activities on rigs that employ the following technology {all are regardless of drilling depth}: subsea blowout preventer; above sea blowout preventer on a floating rig.  Any pending applications that include these specifications are suspended and will not be approved:  exemptions for drilling of relief wells, for well completion, and disposal wells.  The suspension will go through November 30, 2010, at which time they anticipate safety measures will have been implemented.  Director Bromwich will "reach out to stakeholders" to discuss other measures that may allow for other activities to occur {translation: ask environmental groups for more ideas about shutting down oil and gas activity.  -dh  Fox News Story.  ADN/AP by Frederick Frommer).  

PNA via ADN.  Shell is waiting for clarity on the federal government's position on drilling for oil in the Arctic outer continental shelf following the U.S. Department of the Interior's imposition of a six-month drilling moratorium, said Peter Slaiby (NGP Photo), Shell Alaska vice president.  ...  "We would like a measure of certainty by the end of this year," Slaiby said, adding that Shell does not want to go into 2011 still waiting for permits, as happened in 2010.  And an appeal continues over the issuance of Shell's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air-quality permits for its offshore drilling, "We're continuing to push that along," Slaiby said.  Meantime, Shell is continuing with offshore environmental baseline studies, primarily in the Chukchi Sea, during this year's open-water season. And the company will conduct shallow-hazard surveys at sites in the Beaufort Sea's Harrison Bay area, where Shell is exploring in a joint venture with Italian major Eni.  Although Shell does not anticipate any reduction in its Alaska office staffing levels as it continues to try to get its offshore drilling program under way, the cancellation of the 2010 program has resulted in the loss of 600 to 800 jobs in its planned field operations. And hiring large numbers of people and then dropping them again within a short space of time does not work, Slaiby said. ... Shell anticipates using essentially the same exploration plans in 2011 as the U.S. Minerals Management Service approved for 2010, to drill two wells in the Beaufort Sea and up to three wells in the Chukchi Sea. And Shell is confident that its plans can meet new drilling safety requirements. ....

CDC.  Charlie Tobac passes as Dene mourn.  

Windsor Star and Calgary Herald by Dina O'Meara.  Renewed opposition to Alberta's oilsands operations has put pressure on the province to find new markets, as momentum grows in the United States to bar Canadian bitumen.  (Comment: We warned Canadian leaders that their Greenhouse Gas drumbeat would come back to haunt them.  -dh)  The concerted lobbying efforts are a wake-up call for Alberta and Canada to stop relying on the U.S. as the primary market for our energy, analyst Vince Lauerman said.  "The dirty oil lobby is winning the propaganda war, especially in the U.S., and definitely poses a threat to oilsands development," said Lauerman, president of Geopolitics Central, an advisory firm.