The Times-Picayune
written by David Hammer, Staff writer
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
A group of scientists who felt their views were improperly used to justify a federal moratorium on deepwater oil drilling spent an hour Monday morning trying to persuade Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to soften the ban.
They failed to win any immediate concessions, although Salazar said he remained committed to finding "ways to make the moratorium better" and agreed to a follow-up meeting in two weeks, said Ken Arnold of the National Academy of Engineering, a member of the group.
The group of experts complained earlier this month that Salazar had consulted them on a May 27 report on drilling safety and then IMPLIED [basically LIED! (emphasis mine)] that the scientists had agreed to a "blanket moratorium" that THEY ACTUALLY OPPOSED. They said the moratorium went TOO FAR and WARNED that it "will have a lasting impact on the nation's economy which may be greater than that of the oil spill."
The Department of the Interior later said it didn't intend to imply that the experts had supported the moratorium. But the dispute has become more than a simple misunderstanding. The experts' claims are a central part of a federal lawsuit in New Orleans that seeks to block the moratorium.
Salazar was joined in the meeting Monday by Michael Bromwich, working his first day as the new head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy, the successor agency to the beleaguered Minerals Management Service.
"Secretary Salazar and Michael Bromwich had a productive meeting today to discuss ongoing reforms with the members of the NAE panel and they look forward to continuing to work with them," said Kendra Barkoff, an Interior Department spokeswoman.
While pushing for an end to the moratorium, the experts called on Salazar and Bromwich to immediately implement the safety recommendations already outlined in Salazar's May 27 report, including the eight measures imposed recently on shallow-water drilling permits.
The experts also added their voices to those of Louisiana's political leaders, who have been asking for drilling to continue in the safe zones of rock and salt, stopping somewhere short of the reservoirs of oil that could cause a spill if another accident were to occur.
They contend that would allow important and time-consuming work to continue while eliminating the danger of oil and natural gas getting into the well hole, which is what happened April 20 under the Deepwater Horizon rig. A bulge of gas shot up miles of pipes to the rig on the sea's surface, exploded in balls of flames, killed 11 workers and destroyed the rig, leaving oil gushing out of the seafloor.
But it's also important to note that the Deepwater Horizon hit a dangerous pocket of gas above the zone of oil a little more than a month before the fateful blowout. While such unexpected "kicks" of gas put rigs at risk whenever they drill into the earth below the sea, there's no danger of oil spilling until the drill reaches an actual oil reservoir.
The impact of the deepwater moratorium is expected to be massive, leading to an estimated 10,000 layoffs in Louisiana alone and the relocation of thousands of other jobs overseas. But for now, oil companies are playing a waiting game, weighing the costs and benefits of idling rigs for six months in the Gulf of Mexico or moving them to places like West Africa and Brazil.
The only member of Salazar's original panel who didn't participate in Monday's meeting was University of California at Berkeley engineering professor Bob Bea, who was in New Orleans. But Bea was one of the eight who signed the initial letter complaining that their role in reviewing the Salazar report had been mischaracterized.
Please click HERE to read the entire article...
No comments:
Post a Comment