Podcasts about ocean energy management

On Donald Trump's first day in office, he signed an Executive Order directing all parts of the federal government to take steps to stop the development of offshore wind. This has left people wondering: what's the future for offshore wind? Spoiler: it's unclear. Citing his executive order, on April 16, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop work order for Empire Wind, a fully-permitted wind project off New York. Included in the rationale for the stop work order is a discredited conspiracy theory that offshore wind development was responsible for a spate of whale deaths. (A claim that has been thoroughly debunked although still commonly cited by anti-wind activists.) After the stop work order was issued, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 17 other attorneys general filed a lawsuit to challenge the legality of Trump's anti-wind executive order. Humboldt's own EPIC, together with a coalition of other environmental organization, have filed an amicus brief in the litigation against the Trump executive order too. Approximately a month later, the Trump Administration lifted its stop work order. Why? They won't say. But despite uncertain federal waters, the Humboldt Bay Harbor District and the State of California continue to move forward on work for other necessary infrastructure to develop offshore wind. The Humboldt Bay Harbor District is continuing to develop its "green port" for build and service wind turbines. And the California Independent Systems Operator has selected a developer to build new transmission lines to service the project.Breaking down all of these events and more is Matt Simmons, Climate Attorney at EPIC. Have a question about offshore wind? Visit northcoastoffshorewind.org, a product of EPIC, Humboldt Waterkeeper, Blue Lake Rancheria, and the Redwood CORE Hub at the Humboldt Area Foundation. Support the show

The U.S. Interior Department halts the Empire Wind Project due to environmental concerns, prompting political backlash and legal considerations. The Offshore Wind Industry Council releases a framework to better protect marine life, and a new assessment reveals job opportunities in the Canadian offshore wind energy market. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Newsflash, industry News Lightning fast. Allen Hall: The United States Interior Department has ordered a halt to all activities related to the Empire Wind Project off the coast of New York. In a director's order dated April 16th, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management instructed Empire offshore wind, LLC to suspend ongoing activities. Related to the Offshore wind project. The stoppage order follows in part feedback received from the National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about environmental concerns. In a July, 2023 assessment, NOAA determined the project would quote, result in significant adverse impacts to essential fish habitat federally managed species, the prey, and other resources, unquote. Noah expressed particular concerns about the project's overlap with the Clara Bank and important [00:01:00] ecological area that provides valuable habitat for numerous fish species. Interior Secretary Doug Burnham stated The project is being stopped until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis unquote. New York Governor Kathy Hoel has criticized the decision pledging to fight it. Empire Win one is already employing hundreds of New Yorkers, including 1000 good paying union jobs as part of a growing sector, unquote. She characterized the order as quote, federal. Overreach and vowed to protect union jobs, affordable energy, and New York's economic future. Equinor, the parent company of Empire Offshore Wind, LLC announced it would comply with the order and suspend offshore construction, but is engaging with the relevant authorities to clarify the matter and is considering legal remedies including appealing the [00:02:00] order unquote. The Empire Wind Project Construction included up to 147 wind turbine generators with a substantial submarine cable network connecting the turbines to the mainland electric grid in New York. The Offshore Wind Industry Council has published a framework report to help offshore wind industries better coordinate underwater noise management, various seabed activities, including surveys, turbine installation, and unexploded ordinance clearance need improved coordination to protect marine wildlife. Conservation measures already exist in areas like the Southern North Sea, a marine protected area for harbor purposes. The report identifies a critical need for better planning when government thresholds might prevent multiple projects from operating simultaneously. Key proposals include a coordinated framework for cooperation and a transparent decision making process to quickly resolve scheduling conflicts. [00:03:00] Juliet Shrimpton and Ben Sykes from Ørsted emphasize the importance of balancing biodiversity protection with clean energy development to meet UK's 2030 targets. And Marine Renewables Canada's new assessment reveals significant opportunities for atlantic Canada's wind energy supply chain. Under medium development scenarios. Offshore wind projects could create up to 6,000 jobs during peak periods while onshore wind could generate 5,000 jobs. Of 1070 companies assessed for offshore wind. Roughly 25% were considered highly applicable b...

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found Click On Picture To See Larger PictureDoug Burgum halted offshore wind project near NY, Gov Hochul tries to fight back. Foreign investors are dumping stocks.IMF issues warning, Trump is destroying their system. Trump is getting ready to drill baby drill. The Art of the Deal is in action. The [DS] has lost the narrative on MS-13 who was deported. The question is why are the Ds and the fake news concerned about this individual, does he know where the bodies are buried? Scavino sends a message puts up a picture of the President of El Salvador playing chess. What is the objective, in the end it will be checkmate king.   (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); Economy Trump Admin Orders Halt To Offshore Wind Project Near New York Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said on April 16 that he had ordered a halt to the construction of a major wind project off the coast of New York “until further review.” Burgum, posting to the social platform X on Wednesday, said he had consulted with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to direct the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to “halt all construction activities” on Equinor's Empire Wind project. The Biden administration approved the project in 2023, with construction beginning last year. The interior secretary accused the former administration of “rush[ing] through its approval without sufficient analysis.” He did not provide further details on potential faults identified. “On day one, [President Donald Trump] called for comprehensive reviews of federal wind projects and wind leasing, and at Interior, we are doing our part to make sure these instructions are followed,” Burgum wrote in a follow-up post.   In response to the pause, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the project had already generated roughly 1,000 “good-paying union jobs” and is contributing to the state's economy. “This fully federally permitted project has already put shovels in the ground before the President's executive orders—it's exactly the type of bipartisan energy solution we should be working on,” Hochul wrote in a statement. “As Governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand. I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy, and New York's economic future.” According to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, offshore wind farms “can be damaging to fish and other marine species” due to the noise and vibration from both the construction and operation of the wind turbines. Disturbing the sea floor during construction can also “affect plankton in the water column.” Source: zerohedge.com   https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1912952517346070939  According to Apollo, foreigners own a massive $18.5 trillion of US stocks, or 20% of the total US equity market. Moreover, foreign holdings of US Treasuries are at $7.2 trillion, or 30% of the total. Investors from abroad also hold 30% of the total corporate credit market, for a total of $4.6 trillion. Foreign investors want out amid the volatility. IMF issues global economy warning The global economy is expected to grow more slowly this year and face higher inflation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said, citing global trade disruptions and rising “protectionism.” Sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, which he says are focused on prioritizing domestic manufacturing and renegotiating trade deals in favor of the US, have caused a sharp rift with trade partners, including the European Union and China.

This week, SSE appoints Martin Pibsworth as the next CEO, GE Vernova inaugurates a new customer center in Florida, RWE advances its Sophia Offshore Wind Project, and Nantucket challenges three offshore wind projects along Massachusetts coast. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Newsflash, industry News Lightning fast. Newsflash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen Hall: Starting off the week, British Utility Company SSE has named Martin Pibsworth as its chief executive designate. Pibsworth joined SSE in 1998 and currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer. Pibsworth will take over from Alistair Phillips Davies, who has been CEO since 2013 and will hand over the reigns following the annual general meeting on July 17th. Before leaving the company in November, uh, the new CEO will lead SSE renewables push helping the UK deliver on its decarbonization goals. During Philip's Davies tenure, SSE made a strategic shift toward networks and renewables with shares gaining about 4% during his leadership. Last year. SSE announced plans to invest at least 22 billion pounds in grid infrastructure over five years. Over in the United States, GE Vernova has opened a new customer experience center at its Pensacola facility in Florida, marked by a ribbing cutting event hosted by CEO Scott Strazik. The center includes multiple conference rooms, collaboration areas, and direct access to production space. The investments are part of GE Vernova's broader plan announced in January to invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities. Over the next two years, the Pensacola factory has already produced enough turbines to supply over 1.2 gigawatts of the 2.4 gigawatts ordered for the Sunzia Wind Farm in New Mexico. German Energy group RWE has installed its first turbines at its 1.4 Gigawatt Sophia Offshore Wind Project in the uk Located on Dogger Bank, 195 kilometers off the northeast coast of Britain. Sophia is set to become one of the world's largest single offshore wind farms. The project will consist of 100 Siemens Gamesa turbines featuring 150 recyclable blades. The wind park is scheduled to be fully operational in the second half of 2026. RWE's Chief Operating Officer for offshore wind commented that Sophia will make a significant contribution to the UK's clean power 2030 targets. And over in Massachusetts, the town of Nantucket and a Nantucket based activist group are challenging three offshore wind projects off the Massachusetts coast. The town recently sued the US Department of Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management requesting that the government set aside its approval of South Coast Wind and restart the environmental review. Meanwhile, the group ACK for Whales is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind permits granted to Vineyard Wind and New England wind. These challenges come amid the Trump administration's opposition to offshore wind. Industry analyst Timothy Fox's Vineyard Wind faces less risk from these challenges since it's already under construction while projects in planning stages are at higher risk. South Coast wind, which receive final federal approval on the last business day of the Biden administration could be delayed by up to four years. Vineyard wind is the furthest along among these projects with more than half of its 62 turbine towers already installed. Massachusetts Energy Secretary Rebecca Tepper has reiterated the state support for offshore wind emphasizing the need for energy independence...

The Mississippi Senate passes a $326 million tax cut bill that lowers income and grocery taxes and raises the gasoline tax.Then, today is the deadline for two universities to submit proposals that will determine the future of a prestigious, public high school in Mississippi.Plus, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management wants old oil wells in the Gulf cleaned up. But some states have sued, saying it will crush independent oil companies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, host Andrew Lewin discusses the significant executive actions Donald Trump took on his first day in office that will impact ocean policies. The episode highlights several key policies that were revoked or altered, which pose threats to the ocean environment: Revocation of Biden's Executive Orders: Trump rescinded multiple executive orders from the Biden administration to protect public health and the environment and address the climate crisis. This included orders that directed federal agencies to confront climate change and protect marine ecosystems. Removal of Offshore Exploration Protections: Trump's actions included the removal of protections against offshore oil and natural gas exploration on the outer continental shelf. This could lead to increased drilling activities, which are detrimental to marine environments. National Energy Emergency Declaration: Trump declared a national energy emergency, which expedited the review and permitting processes for new oil and gas production. This declaration is seen as favoring fossil fuels over renewable energy sources, despite the latter being more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Halting Offshore Wind Projects: In a contradictory move, Trump issued a temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leasing. This decision undermines the development of renewable energy sources that could help mitigate climate change. Dismantling of the Civil Service: The reinstatement of Schedule F allows for the conversion of career civil servants into political appointees, which could weaken the scientific integrity and effectiveness of agencies like NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management). Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord: Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement removes the U.S. from international climate negotiations, limiting its ability to influence global climate policy and potentially exacerbating ocean-related issues. The episode emphasizes the importance of public engagement and advocacy to counter these policies, urging listeners to contact their representatives to express support for ocean protection initiatives. Link to article: https://www.southernfriedscience.com/how-donald-trumps-day-1-executive-actions-impact-the-ocean/  Follow a career in conservation: https://www.conservation-careers.com/online-training/ Use the code SUFB to get 33% off courses and the careers program.   Do you want to join my Ocean Community? Sign Up for Updates on the process: www.speakupforblue.com/oceanapp   Sign up for our Newsletter: http://www.speakupforblue.com/newsletter   Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3NmYvsI Connect with Speak Up For Blue: Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube  

No, offshore wind does not cause whale strandings as stated by NOAA, the Marine Mammal Commission, and other government agencies. The rumor was started and perpetuated by the current president of the United States, Donald Trump; Fox News; fossil fuel-funded non-profit organizations; and the fishing communities along the East Coast as renewable energy threatens the fossil fuel industry. In this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, host Andrew Lewin addresses the concerns surrounding whale strandings along the East Coast of the U.S. and the claims that the offshore wind industry is to blame. Over the past few years, there has been an increase in whale strandings, leading various groups—including politicians, nonprofit organizations, and media outlets—to suggest a link to offshore wind farms. However, Lewin emphasizes that extensive research conducted by NOAA and other academic institutions has found no evidence connecting the offshore wind industry to these strandings. The Marine Mammal Commission, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and NOAA Fisheries support this conclusion, stating that the primary human threats to large whales are vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, not offshore wind. Lewin points out that the narrative blaming offshore wind is perpetuated by those with vested interests, such as the fossil fuel industry and fishing communities, who may feel threatened by the growth of renewable energy sources. He stresses the importance of relying on scientific evidence rather than misinformation spread through social media and certain media outlets. The episode reinforces that there is no scientific basis for the claims linking offshore wind to whale strandings, and it highlights the need to focus on the real threats to whale populations, such as vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement. Link to Article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whales-are-dying-but-not-from-offshore-wind/ Follow a career in conservation: https://www.conservation-careers.com/online-training/ Use the code SUFB to get 33% off courses and the careers program.   Do you want to join my Ocean Community? Sign Up for Updates on the process: www.speakupforblue.com/oceanapp   Sign up for our Newsletter: http://www.speakupforblue.com/newsletter   Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3NmYvsI Connect with Speak Up For Blue: Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube    

Two years ago, energy companies scrambled for offshore wind contracts. At a recent auction, the demand was significantly lower. Plus, artist Sarah Rosalena uses Indigenous weaving, ceramics, and sculpture practices to create art that challenges tech's future, in a segment from earlier this year.Maine Offshore Wind Auction Draws Few BidsOffshore wind is coming to the Gulf of Maine. Earlier this week, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held an auction for eight leases to develop wind projects off the coast of Maine. But companies bid on only half of the available leases.Guest host Rachel Feltman talks with Casey Crownhart, senior climate reporter for MIT Technology Review about that and other top science news of the week including; bird flu found in pigs, AI's electronic waste problem, what's in your black plastic spatula, and giant rats fighting the illegal wildlife trade.An Artist Combines Indigenous Textiles With Modern TechWhen multidisciplinary artist Sarah Rosalena looks at a loom, she thinks about computer programming. “It's an extension of your body, being an algorithm,” she says.Rosalena, a Wixárika descendant and assistant professor of art at the University of California Santa Barbara, combines traditional Indigenous craft—weaving, beadmaking, pottery—with new technologies like AI, data visualization, and 3D-printing. And she also works with scientists to make these otherworldly creations come to life. She involved researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab to make 3D-printed pottery with simulated Martian clay. And she collaborated with the Mount Wilson Observatory to produce intricately beaded tapestries based on early-1900s glass plates captured by the observatory's telescope, which women mathematicians used to make astronomical calculations.And that's also a big focus for Rosalena: spotlighting the overlooked contributions women made to computer science and connecting it to how textiles are traditionally thought of as a woman-based craft. When she first started making this kind of art, Rosalena learned that the Jacquard loom—a textile advancement in the 1800s that operated on a binary punch card system which allowed for mass production of intricate designs—inspired computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace when she was developing the first computer program. “[They] have this looped history,” she says. “And when I weave or do beadwork, it's also recalling that relationship.”Read the rest at sciencefriday.com.Transcript for these segments will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

At the end of September, when the federal government canceled Oregon's first-ever offshore wind lease sale, many people were left with questions about why and what's next. The announcement from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management came after Gov. Tina Kotek sent a letter to the agency asking it to stop the Oct. 15 auction. Kotek cited tribal opposition and a tribal lawsuit among the reasons for halting the lease sale. That lawsuit was filed by the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, which has emerged over the past two years as one of the most vocal opponents of offshore wind, demanding the bureau conduct in-depth reviews of the impacts of floating turbines on marine life and fishing areas. Despite the lawsuit and the canceled auction, the tribal confederation has continued talks with the federal agency. Because the reality is that the turbines are badly needed to generate clean electricity and help achieve state and federal climate goals. The questions remain: how and where should these projects be built? Brad Kneaper, Tribal Council chair with the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians and Rick Eichstaedt, the tribes' attorney, talked on Beat Check about why his tribes decided to sue to halt the auction and what the path forward for Oregon's offshore wind is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the BIC Magazine Weekly Industry Report, we cover Heliene and Premier Energies' announcement of a U.S. solar cell facility, Occidental's sale of Delaware Basin assets for $818 million, CF Industries advancing a carbon capture project in Mississippi with ExxonMobil, Port Houston achieving record container handling and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management considering a new wind lease in the Gulf of Mexico. This episode is sponsored by Dräger. For more news on the renewable energy industry, manufacturing industry, oil and gas industry and more, visit bicmagazine.com #EnergySectorNews #SolarEnergy #CarbonCapture #PortHouston #OffshoreWind #EnergyInvesting #EnergyInvestment

26 July, 2024 – EASTHAM, MA – Over 200 Cape Codders attended the public information session at the Sheraton in Eastham, July 17, called by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The presentation about the leasing process and the environmental assessment was cut short to give more time to the public's comments and questions. BOEM is proposing lease sales of 1 million acres, some of it 20 miles outside lower and outer Cape Cod, for construction and operation of a wind power station with the capacity of supplying energy to 5 million homes.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of Interior, recently announced next steps for developing floating wind facilities off the coast of Coos Bay and Brookings. These Oregon offshore wind turbines could power more than one million homes with renewable energy, according to the agency. Still, tribal leaders and commercial fishing groups remain concerned about how the projects could affect the ecosystem. We hear more about the latest developments from OPB climate reporter Monica Samayoa.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (03/18/2024): 3:05pm- While speaking at a campaign event in Ohio over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump predicted that there would be an economic “bloodbath” for the automotive manufacturing industry if he didn't win the 2024 presidential election in November. Of course, Democrats and dishonest members of the media took the statement out of context—instead suggesting that Trump had openly called for a “bloodbath”, or a massacre, should he lose. A selectively trimmed nine-second clip was reposted by numerous social media accounts belonging to members of the political left, including: Biden-Harris HQ and Joe Scarborough (who quickly deleted his post). The strategically edited audio inaccurately makes it appear as though Trump is calling for violence. On Monday, morning shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC all promoted the fake narrative as well. 3:15pm- A montage posted to social media by Tom Elliot features members of the media routinely using the term “bloodbath” to refer to elections. The clip features: Rachel Maddow, Charles Blow, Mika Brzezinski, Van Jones, Jake Tapper, Joe Scarborough, Ali Velshi, Don Lemon, Joy Reid, Brian Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Andrew Yang, Simone Sanders, Michael Steele, and David Frum. Notably, Goldberg and Scarborough are now explicitly saying that the use of a term like “bloodbath” is outside the bounds of acceptable behavior. 3:40pm- In response to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign speech in Ohio where he used the term “bloodbath” to describe what could happen economically to the American automobile industry, the Biden-Harris campaign released this over-the-top and purposefully misleading statement: “Tonight, Donald Trump said there would be a 'bloodbath' if he wasn't elected and that if he lost there would be no more elections. After opening the general election by meeting with authoritarian leaders and rallying alongside conspiracy theorists, Donald Trump continues to praise dictators, promise to pardon political violence, and launch racist attacks against Black and brown Americans. It's why last night, Trump's own former Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump supporters called to hang for not overturning the election, came out against Trump. This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence. He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge." 4:05pm- Wayne Parry of the Associated Press writes: “An offshore wind power project proposed for New Jersey would have 157 turbines and be located 8.4 miles from shore at its closest point, data released by the federal government Friday shows. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it will begin an environmental review Monday of the Atlantic Shores project. It released key details of the project in announcing the environmental review. New Jersey energy regulators approved Atlantic Shores' 1,510 megawatt project in 2021. It would generate enough electricity to power more than 700,000 homes.” You can read the full article report here: https://www.inquirer.com/news/new-jersey/nj-offshore-wind-farm-atlantic-shores-20240315.html 4:15pm- On Monday, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri—a case which will determine whether officials within the federal government can use their power to coerce social media platforms into censoring speech they unilaterally deem harmful and/or misinformation. While questioning the U.S. Principal Deputy General Brain Fletcher, Justice Samuel Alito seemed to suggest that government pressuring social media companies to do their bidding is violative of the First Amendment, explaining: “The only reason why this is taking place is because the federal government has got Section 230 and antitrust in its pocket…it's got these big clubs available to it—so it's treating Facebook and these other platforms like they are subordinates. Would you do that to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or the Associated Press?” 4:20pm- The Washington Post writes of oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri: “The Supreme Court seems likely to reject a Republican-led effort that could reshape how politicians communicate with major social media companies—with sweeping consequences for government efforts to secure elections and combat health misinformation. A majority of justices from across the ideological spectrum expressed concern about hamstringing federal government communications with social media platforms on issues such as public health, national security and elections. Brian Fletcher, the principal deputy solicitor general of the United States, argued that the government was legally using its bully pulpit to protect the American public. He warned that overly broad limits on the government's communications with tech companies could harm efforts to protect national security or children's mental health.” You can read more about the WaPo assessment of the case here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/18/supreme-court-social-media-biden-missouri/ 4:40pm- During oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voiced concern that ruling against the federal government in this case could result in “hamstringing” their ability to curate speech online—suggesting that the government has a “duty” to police harmful statements. 4:50pm- Nika Shakhnazarova of The New York Post writes: “A ‘happy, healthy, and relaxed' Kate Middleton and husband Prince William were reportedly spotted visiting a local farm shop over the weekend, but—bizarrely—no photos were captured of the royals during their rumored outing. Onlookers claimed to the Sun that the Prince and Princess of Wales made a stop at a farm shop in Windsor after watching their children, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, play sports. And while the rumored sighting may provide some royalists with comfort and a collective sigh of relief that Middleton, 42, is doing well, it also seems to raise more questions than before.” But was it really her??? Rich and Henry have their doubts. You can read the full article here: https://nypost.com/2024/03/18/entertainment/kate-middleton-reportedly-visits-farm-shop-with-prince-william-not-photographed/ 5:05pm- Daniel Turner—Founder & Executive Director of Power the Future—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his latest editorial for Fox News, “Biden Wants 50,000 New Climate Activists and the Consequences will Be Devastating.” Turner writes: “With the national debt racing toward a record $35 trillion, President Joe Biden released his budget proposal Monday, including an eye-popping $8 billion for a ‘Climate Corps' program. Enthusiastically supported by Green New Deal architects New York Democrat Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Democrat Senator Ed Markey, Biden's Climate Corps would hire 50,000 government workers annually by 2031 with the explicit yet vague mission of ‘tackling climate change.' Any guesses which political party these workers will be supporting? The budget proposal made good on Biden's pledge during the State of the Union to triple the number of workers from the original 20,000 he proposed last fall.” You can read his full opinion piece here: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-wants-50000-climate-activists-consequences-devastating 5:30pm- Tracy Beanz—Editor-in-Chief for UncoverDC.com & host of the “Dark to Light” podcast—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to breakdown the Supreme Court oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri, a case which will determine whether officials within the federal government can use their power to pressure social media platforms into censoring speech they consider harmful and/or misinformation. You can find Beanz's work here: https://uncoverdc.com 6:05pm- A new study indicates that progressives are more likely to experience unhappiness, anxiety, and depression. Hannah Sparks writes: “Psychological researchers in Finland have created an assessment to help measure an individual's commitment to principles of social justice and made some surprising findings across the Finnish population—including a negative correlation between progressive ideals and levels of happiness. Their findings, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, suggest other Western nations may see similar patterns among their socially conscious citizens. Study author Oskari Lahtinen, a senior researcher at the INVEST Research Flagship Centre at the University of Turku, remarked that the ‘woke' discourse has since worked its way into Finnish discourse.” You can read the full article here: https://nypost.com/2024/03/17/lifestyle/woke-people-more-likely-to-be-unahppy-anxious-and-depressed-new-study-suggests/ 6:30pm- While appearing on MSNBC with Jen Psaki, Democrat strategist James Carville bizarrely claimed that if President Joe Biden does not win reelection in 2024 it will be because of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's ongoing war with Hamas. 6:40pm- Appearing on Fox & Friends, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's outlandish call for Netanyahu to stepdown—exclaiming “we are not a banana republic.”  6:50pm- While appearing on Meet the Press Now with host Yamiche Alcindor, Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D-MA)—who cosponsored the House bill that could potentially ban TikTok—explained: “So, the first step is ‘ok TikTok you're subject to U.S. law.' The second step ‘ok all social media corporations, you're going to have to answer to Congress.'”

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 2: Wayne Parry of the Associated Press writes: “An offshore wind power project proposed for New Jersey would have 157 turbines and be located 8.4 miles from shore at its closest point, data released by the federal government Friday shows. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it will begin an environmental review Monday of the Atlantic Shores project. It released key details of the project in announcing the environmental review. New Jersey energy regulators approved Atlantic Shores' 1,510 megawatt project in 2021. It would generate enough electricity to power more than 700,000 homes.” You can read the full article report here: https://www.inquirer.com/news/new-jersey/nj-offshore-wind-farm-atlantic-shores-20240315.html On Monday, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri—a case which will determine whether officials within the federal government can use their power to coerce social media platforms into censoring speech they unilaterally deem harmful and/or misinformation. While questioning the U.S. Principal Deputy General Brain Fletcher, Justice Samuel Alito seemed to suggest that government pressuring social media companies to do their bidding is violative of the First Amendment, explaining: “The only reason why this is taking place is because the federal government has got Section 230 and antitrust in its pocket…it's got these big clubs available to it—so it's treating Facebook and these other platforms like they are subordinates. Would you do that to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or the Associated Press?” The Washington Post writes of oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri: “The Supreme Court seems likely to reject a Republican-led effort that could reshape how politicians communicate with major social media companies—with sweeping consequences for government efforts to secure elections and combat health misinformation. A majority of justices from across the ideological spectrum expressed concern about hamstringing federal government communications with social media platforms on issues such as public health, national security and elections. Brian Fletcher, the principal deputy solicitor general of the United States, argued that the government was legally using its bully pulpit to protect the American public. He warned that overly broad limits on the government's communications with tech companies could harm efforts to protect national security or children's mental health.” You can read more about the WaPo assessment of the case here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/18/supreme-court-social-media-biden-missouri/ During oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voiced concern that ruling against the federal government in this case could result in “hamstringing” their ability to curate speech online—suggesting that the government has a “duty” to police harmful statements. Nika Shakhnazarova of The New York Post writes: “A ‘happy, healthy, and relaxed' Kate Middleton and husband Prince William were reportedly spotted visiting a local farm shop over the weekend, but—bizarrely—no photos were captured of the royals during their rumored outing. Onlookers claimed to the Sun that the Prince and Princess of Wales made a stop at a farm shop in Windsor after watching their children, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, play sports. And while the rumored sighting may provide some royalists with comfort and a collective sigh of relief that Middleton, 42, is doing well, it also seems to raise more questions than before.” But was it really her??? Rich and Henry have their doubts. You can read the full article here: https://nypost.com/2024/03/18/entertainment/kate-middleton-reportedly-visits-farm-shop-with-prince-william-not-photographed/

In this newscast: The Juneau School District's current school closure plan would have it vacate three city-owned buildings: the district office on Glacier Avenue, the Marie Drake building and Floyd Dryden Middle School. Now, the city is eyeing those buildings as possible new homes for City Hall; A little-known federal agency called Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has a big role in regulating nearly 7,000 miles of coastline in Alaska. Last week, they met with KTOO reporter Anna Canny, who asked them about the emergence of new technologies like offshore renewable energy and carbon storage projects in the state

Nantucket Residents Against Turbines v. U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Show 14-08 Summary: It's government creep. And for all the wrong reasons. Jennifer Hamaker of Oregon Natural Resource Industries updates us BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) pulling a fast one on public meeting laws to try shove through Biden's offshore wind mills that no one wants. And we talk with Rep Ed Diehl about … Read More Read More The post 14-08 Government Creep is Beyond Creeping. It's an Invasion. appeared first on The I Spy Radio Show.

Latest on Oregon Offshore Wind Projects The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, BOEM, released the latest info this week on the proposed floating offshore wind energy projects slated for southern Oregon coastal waters. Even after a lengthy public comment period last fall, stakeholders like tribes and commercial fishermen still say they aren't being heard. A 30-day public comment period opens this week. Info online: Google "BOEM Oregon Activities."

The Jakolof Bay Boat Dock has been a transportation hub for Seldovia residents for more than 40 years, and a long due replacement is in the works. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is working on expanding renewable energy in the Lower Cook Inlet in the form of offshore wind and tidal energy — which could be as far as miles away from land in federal waters.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is working on expanding renewable energy in the Lower Cook Inlet in the form of offshore wind and tidal energy – which could be as far as miles away from land in federal waters

The Department of the Interior is a key player in the energy transition in the U.S.. The federal government owns about 28% of the 2.3 billion acres of land in the country. The Department is responsible for permitting oil and gas drilling, renewable development, and mining on its vast land holdings.  At the same time, the DOI is tasked with protecting America's national parks and wilderness holdings for future generations. As the urgency of the climate crisis grows, the agency is at the heart of the difficult trade-offs between conservation and energy development that will define the energy transition.  What does an environmentally and socially responsible approach to the energy transition look like? And how does the federal government weigh the impacts and benefits of energy development on public lands? This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Tommy Beaudreau about the DOI's effort to protect public lands and support the development of a domestic clean energy economy. Tommy is the co-chair of WilmerHale's energy, environment, and natural resources practice, and a distinguished visiting fellow at Columbia's Center on Global Energy Policy. He recently served as deputy secretary of the Department of Interior from 2021-2023. Tommy served in senior leadership roles in the Department for nearly a decade across two administrations, including as the first director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in 2011.

For today's episode, we're joined by Avery Paxton, who is a Research Marine Biologist with NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Chris Taylor, Research Ecologist, also with NOAA's NCCOS, and Melanie Damour, who is a Marine Archeologist and the Environmental Studies Coordinator with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's Gulf of Mexico Region Office. They were here to discuss their recent BioScience article on "Shipwreck Ecology," and the ways in which these sites can be hotspots for biodiversity—and also for research.  Read the article here.  Captions can be found on YouTube. 

This Day in Maine Thursday, May 11, 2023

Daily Standup Top StoriesBusinesses Urge Biden to Use ‘Every Tool' in Mexico Energy SpatMarch 12, 2023 Allen Santos​Business groups representing American oil producers, renewable electricity and manufacturers urged the Biden administration to use “every tool available” to push Mexico to address complaints about its nationalist energy policy that the US says violates […]Biden Officials Back Alaska Oil Project Scorned by EnvironmentalistsMarch 12, 2023 Allen Santos​The Biden administration has decided to authorize a mammoth ConocoPhillips oil project in northwest Alaska, rejecting arguments from environmental activists who insist it will exacerbate climate change, according to people familiar with the matter. After […]Renewable energy investors squeezed by higher interest rates, costsMarch 12, 2023 Allen SantosNEW YORK/HOUSTON, (Reuters) – Corporations and investors have been pouring money into renewable energy projects, seeing an opportunity to grasp the Holy Grail of socially conscious investing: do good while doing well. But sharply higher […]Renewable energy investors squeezed by higher interest rates, costsMarch 12, 2023 Allen SantosNEW YORK/HOUSTON, (Reuters) – Corporations and investors have been pouring money into renewable energy projects, seeing an opportunity to grasp the Holy Grail of socially conscious investing: do good while doing well. But sharply higher […]What to expect after Iran, Saudi Arabia agree to restore tiesMarch 12, 2023 Allen SantosTehran, Iran – Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations in a China-brokered deal that could have wide-ranging consequences but building on it, analysts say, will prove the main challenge. The agreement […]Highlights of the Podcast00:00 – Intro05:09 – Businesses urge Biden to use every tool. Mexico07:10 – Biden officials back Alaska oil project scorned by environmentalist09:57 – Renewable energy investors squeezed by higher interest rates and cost12:26 – Russia uses ship to ship transfers to boost diesel exports to Saudi Arabia14:32 – What to expect after Iran and Saudi Arabia agree to restore ties that was brokered by China specifically in Beijing16:30 – Market Update18:31 – OutroFollow Stuart On LinkedIn and TwitterFollow Michael On LinkedIn and TwitterENB Top NewsENBEnergy DashboardENB PodcastENB SubstackVideo Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.Daily Energy Standup Episode #81Michael Tanner [00:00:14] What is going on? Everybody, welcome to another edition ofthe Daily Energy News Beat. Stand up here on this gorgeous Wednesday, March 15th,2023. As always, I'm your humble correspondent, Michael Tanner, coming to you from anundisclosed location here in Dallas, Texas, joined by the executive producer of the show,the purveyor of the show and the director, publisher of the world's greatest website,Energy News Beat.com, Stuart Turley, my man, how are we doing today?Stuart Turley [00:00:39] Its a good day in the neighborhood. Wow, it's been a brutal day.Michael Tanner [00:00:42] It's been a brutal day, but it's been a good day. Kind of a slowday, but also kind of night. We've got some interesting stories lined up. First one Stu's gotfor us in all capital letters, [00:00:51]Wave of new LNG export plants threatened to knockgas prices. [3.7s] I'd be okay with this. I mean, I can't lie and say I like high gas prices,even if that does help the oil and gas business, which it really doesn't do. Commonmisconception that high gas prices actually help the oil business. I mean, yes, it usuallymeans crude oil prices are high. But I'm I'm okay with knocking gas prices down for theconsumer because this will cover in the CPI. It's a huge part of their overall budget. So Stuwill dive into all of these new export plants.Michael Tanner [00:01:20] Next up, we've got [00:01:21]US president proposes moremoney for offshore wind activities and no tax subsidies for oil and gas in 2024 budget.[7.3s] Dun dun dun. So Stu will dive into what this the 2024 Biden administration budgetlooks like. And as that title goes up, it's not good for oil and gas.Michael Tanner [00:01:38] Next up, Stu is going to fly us geopolitically around the world.We're going to end up talking about [00:01:43]the timeline of Iran and Saudi relations.[2.1s] He's going to walk through this really good article and how the reestablishing ofrelations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is has some pretty crazy geopolitical impacts. Stuwill time it all.Michael Tanner [00:01:58] And then to follow up with that, [00:02:00]China to host majorMiddle East summit after the success of the Iran Saudi deal building off [5.5s] what theyhelped to broker in that article before. You know the interesting stuff will cover where thisMiddle East summit and what it looks like held by China. He'll kick it over to me. I'll coverwhat happened in [00:02:15]the oil and gas markets. [0.8s] You know, oil didn't have agreat day specifically due to some of the CPI came out today and amongst other things,specifically surrounding some of the banks. So I'll dive into why prices are down and thenwe'll let you get on out of here and finish up your Wednesday and above.Michael Tanner [00:02:30] Before we do that, guys, as always, all the articles that we'reabout to cover are available in the description below and courtesy of the world's greatestwebsite. WWW.ENERGYNEWSBEAT.COM the best place for all of your oil and gas andEnergy News Dashboard.EnergyNewsBeat.com the best place for all your dataand finance. You could again hit the description below of the article that we are about tocover are available there. I'm out of breath. Those Stu. Where do you want to begin?Stuart Turley [00:02:55] Hey, let's start with the wave of new LNG export threatens toknock gas prices. This is really a very interesting article, Michael. It says one of the firstquotes in here is there's $1,000,000,000,000 of natural gas infrastructure being builtaround the world today.Stuart Turley [00:03:15] There's a set of spectacular shifts in natural gas that is here tostay, said Jeff Vasco, CEO of LNG exporter Cheniere Energy. We love a tremendousCheniere. Qatar's got some big one. They've got a 49 mtpa by 2027 and US projects couldadd 125 M TPA that's 16.4 billion cubic feet per day. Here's the thing. You also havenuclear rebounding. You have Japan aims to boost its nuclear by 20% and you need 7%.France is proposing to build six nuclear reactors.Stuart Turley [00:04:03] A problem with France is on their nuclear reactors and how thisplays in that gas. Hang on. Here is France is proposing to build six new ones becausethey're repairs that they let go on. 25 are too expensive now. Now everybody is sayingnuclear will take away from LNG because nuclear power, we need more all the energy wecan get.Stuart Turley [00:04:28] So no matter how many nuclear reactors we can build, that willnot impact natural gas or LNG. That's what I want to make clear it. People are kind ofthrowing that around. And here's another one.but they're only saying that it's till 2027, but itsays big uncertainty in the industry is focused on how much damage the high price hasdone to medium term gas demand.Stuart Turley [00:04:53] But it also says in the long run, a little bit further down, they'resaying, oh, how much is going to go to renewable, how fast? I think you're ten years awayfrom being able to impact that. That is pretty interesting. What are your thoughts?Michael Tanner [00:05:07] I agree. I think there's a little bit more bark than bite with thisheadline. I do think, you know, with all of these projects coming online over this timeline,you're right, it's going to be a slow and steady drift. But again, we'll see.Michael Tanner [00:05:19] The market dynamics are bound to change between now andwhen this eventual trillion dollar projects roll online. So, you know, I do think is headlinecould be a little misleading. But what would you expect from a headline that's in all caps,too?Stuart Turley [00:05:30] I don't know. But I'm going to talk to the other team on that one.All right. Hey, Michael, let's try this next article here. [00:05:39]Simon Black unraveling canhappen at an instant. [3.1s] And I thought this was interesting. The S&P fell roughly 50%.Unemployment soared and more than a hundred banks failed over the subsequent 12months. It was a total disaster.Stuart Turley [00:05:56] This is talking about 28 September 14th, 2008, when hundreds ofemployees of the financial giant Lehman Brothers walked out of the Bank bank'sheadquarters. Unbelievable. That was a tough time. Now, 15 years later, all theseinvestigations, stress test rules, and it could happen again. Michael, do you know why thiscould happen again? And it's a different circumstance?Michael Tanner [00:06:24] Well, because this time it's not a crisis of overleveraged banks.I mean, it's a little bit of that. I mean, it's not a it's not a subprime mortgage crisis. It's a littlebit more of a addiction to cheap money, which was handed via the low interest rate set bythe Fed.Stuart Turley [00:06:44] Exactly. But here's a twist that could. I'm pretending to be youknow, I've got my hands here waving for our podcast listeners. It's going to be a little bitmore technology than that in this article. [00:06:57]Wells Fargo. Government bonds arethe new toxic Security [3.7s] is one of the big headlines in here, Michael. But what thisreally concern about as b b is the fact that banking has changed and people know thingsquickly.Stuart Turley [00:07:15] The run on this bank happened within hours on SVB, everybodywas saying, hey, wait a minute, get your stuff out. Banking happens on your phones andthat's one of the most critical pieces of banking in today versus 2008. Runs on banks canhappen quickly.Stuart Turley [00:07:35] Now, the stress test on SVB did not happen because the stresstest had another 50 million that they had to be on or 20 million or whatever the number isin order to do their stress test. So they were just big enough, but just under the regulationsthat were there for stress testing.Michael Tanner [00:07:55] Well, yes. And I think you also have to realize that, again, thegame that they were playing was the Treasury security bond arbitrage, which as inflationand rates rise in your long term, government bonds rise.Michael Tanner [00:08:09] When customers come in to withdraw deposits, you have tosell those assets at a loss. They were sitting on an unrealized loss of $15 billion when theirentire balance sheet only showed a profit of $13 billion. So that's where some of that stuffcomes in and then eventually you come into a cash crisis.Stuart Turley [00:08:25] So let me ask let me ask this and that is in the article numberfive, this is going to keep happening. When you take a look at your treasuries and you takea look at the management that you just described, what do you think is going to keephappening? Because the paradigm is changed. People do their banking on their hands. Imean, on their hands. Yeah. It's how I count 1 to 3. You know, you can tell I'm holding upmy hands for our podcast listeners, but Foreign bank, I mean, when you sit back and takea look at this, do you think that it's going to keep going on? Because I don't know thatwe're out of the woods yet, do you?Michael Tanner [00:09:04] Yeah, I think what's really going to happen is you're going tosee a consolidation of banks. It's going to the regulations are going to get so strict, they'regoing to get so stringent that your local bank, your regional bank, they're not going to beable to supply.Michael Tanner [00:09:18] I mean, if the if the FDIC really does go in what everyonethinks they're going to do, which is basically guarantee all deposits anywhere.Stuart Turley [00:09:25] Right.Michael Tanner [00:09:26] They're going to have to increase the fees that banks pay in tothe FDIC in order to have enough capital to supply that, because now, you know, insteadof having a 1%, DAX is going to need five seven.Michael Tanner [00:09:38] That mean only banks that can do that are the JPMorgan's theCitigroup's. I mean you're seeing articles I saw tweets flying by and articles flying acrossthe desk talking about how all three of those companies, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chaseand Citigroup, have all seen a huge influx of new accounts trying to be open in depositsbecause people just consider the biggest banks safe. And I mean, if if that's what we allwant, we want JPMorgan Chase to everyone just have a corporate account with them like,I guess, you know, let's see.Stuart Turley [00:10:07] So Brian Sullivan from CNBC had an. Tweet out their askingquestions. And I do like Brian Sullivan. He is he is a good cat.Michael Tanner [00:10:19] He's their commodities guy, too, which I really like.Stuart Turley [00:10:21] Oh, but he also knows energy. So just and enough of a shout outfor him because I do like him. I love to get him on the podcast, but we'll leave that alone.Michael Tanner [00:10:30] Yeah. What do you got next?Stuart Turley [00:10:31] Okay, let's go up here. President proposes. He proposes to findsome ice cream. No, The title of the thing is [00:10:41]U.S. President proposes moremoney for offshore wind activities and no tax subsidies for oil and gas in the 2024 budget.[9.3s] All right, this one, chaps, my chicken. And I'll tell you what. When you get a chapchicken, it gets all kind of grumpy around here.Stuart Turley [00:10:57] Tax subsidies and subsidies are not happening for the oil andgas. You and I have had this conversation before. Tax deductions for investing is not taxsubsidies. I mean, not subsidies. And and that's what they're referring into in here that ifwhy 2024 budget is saying that there is 64.5 million for the renewable energy program ofthe Department of the Interior, Bureau of Energy, Ocean Energy Management, 21.6 millionmore than to 2023.Stuart Turley [00:11:37] That doesn't include the revenue from the leases. That does notinclude the revenue from the leases. So this is just absolutely bonkers. Listen to this one. Italso proposes 92.8 million for bio IAMS environmental programs, an increase of 10.4million.Stuart Turley [00:12:02] This is like holding things with a gigantic. Anyway, I'm gettingworked up on this. You can't print this kind of money without having low cost power beingprovided. This is going to just increase inflation. It's going to increase the cost to theconsumer. Your thoughts?Michael Tanner [00:12:25] Well, I mean, I think this quote was in one of the fact sheetsthat the White House issued says it all says the president is committed to ending tens ofbillions of dollars of federal tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, even as they benefitfrom billions of dollars in special tax breaks. Oil companies have failed to invest inproduction.Michael Tanner [00:12:42] I mean, that tells you all you need to know about this currentbudget. Do. That's what they really think about you. That's what they want you to think.They think now, on one hand, they'll approve the Willow Project the day before theyannounce this.Michael Tanner [00:12:54] So it is not, you know, what is it, the pot calling the kettle black.You know, don't worry. Yesterday we just approved the Willow project, which is putting80,000 barrels a day in Alaska. You know, I'm I'm I'm sure a couple of deer might die.Michael Tanner [00:13:08] News flash. I'm sorry. There are trade offs. As an economist,everything is a trade off. You know, your iPhone, I'm probably someone, you know,jumped out of a sweat shop and committed suicide in the process of trying to get yourphone mate. I'm sorry. Tweet, tweet at me on the phone made by slaves and make fun ofme.Michael Tanner [00:13:24] But so we could play this game all the way down the line. Ithink it's interesting that there is still 72.3 million are committed for their conventionalenergy program, under which that federal agency is developing kind of a national oil andgas leasing program, which is going to be a little bit different than what the Bureau of LandManagement does and what they do with these offshore oil and gas leases through theDepartment of Interior.Michael Tanner [00:13:48] So that I think is interesting. But I mean, still got a lot of power.What did you expect to be in this budget? We'll never get past. This is just they're they'reshow and tell of here's what we would like to have happen. It won't happen. So it's notgoing to. But this is a hey, here's here's what everyone wants to think. We like.Stuart Turley [00:14:05] Don't ever say in our political world right now it will never happenthere's so many there is so much bull hockey going on in Washington right now, whetheryou're Republican or Democrat or.Michael Tanner [00:14:19] But it's just statistics. When's the last time a president hasactually put together a budget? Was it Clinton? I mean, it goes back multiple presidentsthat haven't had got their budgets approved. This isn't just a.Stuart Turley [00:14:31] Put this together. He know you know the thing. You know thething.Michael Tanner [00:14:36] Yeah, I know. Okay, let's move on now.Stuart Turley [00:14:40] Let's go to the next one here. [00:14:41]Timeline of Iran, Saudirelations. [2.3s] This is really critical because it goes right along with the next story,Michael. And the next story is [00:14:51]China to host major Middle East summit after thesuccess of Saudi Iran. [6.7s] And let me go in to this relationship back in 1979, that wasbefore you were born on it.Michael Tanner [00:15:07] That was,.Stuart Turley [00:15:08] Oh, shush. Oh, my younger. The Saudi monarchy based on itslegitimacy back then on on Islam. It was really bad back then when you're talking about atOklahoma State, when I was there, it was always the Iranians protesting the Shah and itwas bad on the campus. I mean, it was you know, it was just a whole nother thing.Stuart Turley [00:15:36] So then you take a look at coming around the corner and 1980,1988, Iraq invaded Iran, an eight year war. And Saudi Arabia remain neutral. But it causeda real problem with the gas going on and the chemical weapons and all that kind of stuff.Stuart Turley [00:15:57] 1982 Saudi Arabia supplies Iraq with 1 billion in money in aidretro. So they even got on the other side. And it was partly because back then they had lobsome chemical weapons over on that and it was getting ugly on both sides so Saudi wasafraid they were next on the chemical weapons list.Stuart Turley [00:16:24] So 2001, I'm dropping down and here is the next one. Iran andSaudi sign a security pact agreement. This is this was like, holy smokes.Stuart Turley [00:16:37] Now, when you come down here, July 2015, Iran and the world'ssix major powers each reach a deal over Iran's controversial nuclear program. Saudiofficials publicly endorse the deal despite their past reservations. So it's kind of cool. Theystarted coming around in 2015 and let's come down here again. Then that ended. It turnedout that it did.Michael Tanner [00:17:06] It is a long article, man. They go through this this detail they'retalking about multiple quotes per month.Stuart Turley [00:17:13] Oh, absolutely. And and it but it was you need to go read this tounderstand the whole process in order to understand how important China's brokering ofthis deal is because of the success of this deal is so good.Stuart Turley [00:17:31] You have I think 60% of all the countries in the Middle East aregoing to China to go to this summit so China can broker deals. I'm serious. When was thewhen was the last time that deals were brokered in the Middle East in order to makepeace?Michael Tanner [00:17:53] And it has it been in my lifetime.Stuart Turley [00:17:55] It was under the Trump administration, the Abraham Accords andthen that was the first time that they started it.Michael Tanner [00:18:01] You're right. I forgot about the Abraham Accords.Stuart Turley [00:18:03] Many, many years that is a trial and then Biden administrationcomes in and it goes off and gone. China comes in because this is all a slap in the face tothe Biden administration. So we're going to go ahead and table the rest of the article onChina, because I got a bunch more stuff coming up on this and it's using its economic tiesto influence Iran's behavior. Cina understand the way to Iran's heart is through money.They need it badly right now.Michael Tanner [00:18:37] Yeah, and I think this later on down in this article, it says Saudiofficials hopes that Beijing can use its economic ties to influence Iran's behavior as Chinaremains the biggest importer of Iranian crude. The who buy oil gain the power.Stuart Turley [00:18:51] And they are also this is what this all this article means. Boththese articles means it's going to speed up the getting rid of the petro dollar. The UnitedStates dollar is going to move away, not be the world standard even faster now. Anyway,that's it for my time after you.Michael Tanner [00:19:12] Make absolutely no I mean for having no news today. Therewas a lot of news people. So we appreciate we're still keeping us up on all thingsgeopolitical related.Michael Tanner [00:19:23] Very interesting day for the markets, really soaking in theaftermath of the SVB, the bank collapse and the kind of the fallout from that bank stockswere down, but we actually saw the S&P 500 rally up 1.6 percentage points. NASDAQactually jumped 2.3 percentage points. Facebook came out and said they're going to layoff 10,000 people and eliminate 5000 job openings.Michael Tanner [00:19:43] So even after laying off last quarter, Mark Zuckerberg comesin, lays more people off. Still. Does that hurt? Tech stocks? Are bank stocks all aroundwere down and we did see funds become available both at SVB and its signature bank.Charles Schwab was was down fairly heavy. There was a couple other local regionalbanks that were down,.Michael Tanner [00:20:00] But really that had an impact on oil currently trading as werecord this about 708 here on the 14th, 7180. Again, a lot of that's due. To the uncertaintysurrounding what that crude oil demand might look like, both at home and in China.Michael Tanner [00:20:15] But again, today, the big reason why is our dollar was down,interest rates up with that, with the fact that we're entering a peril in which the Fed hascome out and already said we're going to continue to raise rates and if continuing to raiserates will hurt and cause banks to continue to fail. It's a cycle that the Fed started.Michael Tanner [00:20:34] And in order to correct, they have to make banks. I mean, it'sreally a sick cycle that has to happen. They created a problem and to fix the problem, theyhave to wipe out companies who took advantage of the policy that they created in the firstplace.Stuart Turley [00:20:45] And it's because they took too long to take any action being I'mgoing to college, stupid.Michael Tanner [00:20:51] Yeah. So and and right now that that will hamper oil prices Ithink you know in in in the short term you know do I think we stay above 70? Man, I hopeso. But could I see a dip below 70?Stuart Turley [00:21:03] Can I interject here? I did see on on Squawk Box this morningthe CEO of Delta and he is a sharp cookie. I'm not a Delta fan, but on the other hand, he isextremely sharp. And he did say that they had their largest sale or second largest day ofsales last week.Stuart Turley [00:21:25] And with that, he said what they're seeing is that consultants arehitting the road again and people are really traveling and they're expecting their volumes togo up. And when they ask him then about that, I did not know that Delta owned their ownrefinery.Stuart Turley [00:21:44] And I was like, wow, that's pretty smart. They they he says thatthat helps us out. But if that is systemic, lots of demand that may help us.Michael Tanner [00:21:54] Let's see, because I don't know if I believe that Delta boughtPennsylvania oil refinery ten years ago in order to save money on jet fuel cost. Wow. Hedid.Stuart Turley [00:22:03] You know,.Michael Tanner [00:22:03] That's interesting.Stuart Turley [00:22:04] Yeah. Thanks a lot, Michael.Michael Tanner [00:22:06] I believe you. I don't believe that. I believe that that guy saidthat. Do I believe that what that guy was saying was true? Maybe. Maybe not.Stuart Turley [00:22:13] Well, the CEO of a company, right?Michael Tanner [00:22:16] Self right. CEOs never lie. CEOs never come out and saythings that are false in public. You're right, Stu. I'm the idiot. Yes, you are. Gas prices,Nothing. Oh, before I jump, guys. API, as you listen to this, on Wednesday, we'll know thecrude oil inventory that comes out 10 a.m. or 930 Central Time. 830 Mt. at 1030 if you're.Yeah, 10 to 30 if you are in Eastern time zone.Michael Tanner [00:22:44] O'm API though dropped yesterday. I'm 1.1 million or 1.15million barrel build. So we'll look to see if the EIA crude oil draw confirms or denies that. Sothat's a game of a factor and weigh on the bear side natural gas again weather on thehorizon is really the only thing drawing it right now.Michael Tanner [00:23:04] We did see a little bit of a steadiness, $2.58, really not muchon that side again, as weather goes so well that it is. So I don't think there's much pointspending time on us. Do you got anything else for these guys now?Stuart Turley [00:23:15] It's going to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood tomorrow.Michael Tanner [00:23:17] Yes, it will. So with that, guys, we'll let you get out of here, Finish up your day. We appreciate you guys checking us out here at the Energy NewsBeat Daily Stand Up for Stuart Turley. I'm Michael Tanner. We'll see you tomorrow.

This Day in Maine January 19, 2022

On Tuesday, the Biden administration released a plan to guide the U.S. to eliminate carbon emissions from the transportation sector, the leading emitter of U.S. greenhouse gasses warming the planet, by 2050. That blueprint includes spending billions of public dollars to expand the use of electric vehicles and low-carbon fuels. POLITICO's Catherine Morehouse breaks down the details of the administration's plan and its challenges. Plus, President Joe Biden appointed Elizabeth Klein to lead the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which has drawn criticism from Republicans and some Democrats for its lack of oil lease sales.   Josh Siegel is an energy reporter for POLITICO.  Catherine Morehouse is an energy reporter for POLITICO.  Nirmal Mulaikal is a POLITICO audio host-producer. Raghu Manavalan is a senior editor for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO's audio department.

In December, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first auction for offshore wind energy leases on the West Coast.  The BOEM lease sale offered five lease areas covering 373,268 acres off the central and northern California coast.  The leased areas have the potential to produce over 4.6 gigawatts of wind energy, which is […]

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management just sold five leases for wind turbine projects off the coast of California. Three are located in Morro Bay off the Central Coast. Now, local indigenous tribes are speaking up about the projects.  Reporter: Gabriela Fernandez, KCBX Every year in the three weeks around Thanksgiving, the official count of monarch butterflies takes place. Over the last few decades, the monarch butterfly population has been in decline. But this year, volunteers counted 129,000 butterflies in San Luis Obispo County alone. Reporter: Madi Bolaños, The California Report 

On the weekly clean power news and views, we bring you the latest cleantech and clean energy news,  thought leaders, and innovators. Our motto is ‘Speeding the Energy Transition!'This week John Weaver and I discuss,1. New EV wireless charging technique2. Preliminary tariff ruling is for tariffs - but there are a lot of ways to make this not hurt the market too much3. New article talking about the mileage for an EV to cover its carbon debt versus an ICE - 16-21k miles4. Check out THIS ROBOT5. Install of the week because these guys are up on wires6. Results from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's wind energy auction for five leases offshore California…competitive high bids from 5 companies totaling $757.1 million, well exceeding the first lease sales that were held in the Atlantic.7. Senate Bill introduced to incentivize solar carport deployment in California8. The IEA has raised its renewables projections by 76% since 2020 - check out the increase chart9. Battery packs officially up per Bloomberg - not expected to drop again until 2024 - “'volume-weighted average priced lithium-ion battery packs across all sectors up $151/kWh in '22, 7% rise from '21 in real terms...BEV prices were $138/kWh on a volume-weighted average basis...cell level BEV prices were $115/kWh...price drops expected in 2024'10. Norway has almost completely gotten rid of gas cars - a tiny sliver on the chart, but almost all special vehicle typesSubscribe: https://bit.ly/cph-sub The podcast is available on YouTube and audio platforms like Spotify, Apple, Google, and Amazon. We bring you interviews with cleantech entrepreneurs, investors, manufacturers, and energy professionals weekly. What technologies are trending? Why are we excited about agrivoltaics or dual-use solar? What are the challenges and opportunities for renewable energy, electrification of transportation, and decarbonizing the economy? Listen, like, comment, and share! Get all our content at www.CleanPowerHour.com and reach out to Tim Montague @tgmontague on Twitter or Gmail. The Clean Power Hour hosts and cleantech professionals Tim Montague and John Weaver (the Commercial Solar Guy) bring you tCorporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/ Twice a week we highlight the tools, technologies and innovators that are making the clean energy transition a reality - on Apple,

Colleen Finnegan is the Executive Director for the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) at the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). She is responsible for oversight of programs that promote small business participation in DOI procurements, with special emphasis on socio-economic programs including Small Disadvantaged Businesses, Women-Owned Small Businesses, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, and Businesses located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones). Ms. Finnegan began her federal career at the Department of Interior in 2007, at the Minerals Management Service. Originally overseeing the management and use of offshore sediment resources for coastal restoration and resiliency projects. Prior to her position with OSDBU, Ms. Finnegan served as the Acting Executive Chief and Deputy Chief of the Office of Strategic Resources within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, responsible for managing and developing offshore energy and mineral resources. Learn more about the Department of the Interior and the work they do: https://www.doi.gov/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/support

Colleen Finnegan is the Executive Director for the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) at the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). She is responsible for oversight of programs that promote small business participation in DOI procurements, with special emphasis on socio-economic programs including Small Disadvantaged Businesses, Women-Owned Small Businesses, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, and Businesses located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones). Ms. Finnegan began her federal career at the Department of Interior in 2007, at the Minerals Management Service. Originally overseeing the management and use of offshore sediment resources for coastal restoration and resiliency projects. Prior to her position with OSDBU, Ms. Finnegan served as the Acting Executive Chief and Deputy Chief of the Office of Strategic Resources within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, responsible for managing and developing offshore energy and mineral resources. Learn more about the Department of the Interior and the work they do: https://www.doi.gov/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/support

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is currently looking into the possibility of wind farms in Oregon. There are two areas of interest: Coos Bay and Brookings. The hope is that offshore wind in Oregon could provide about three gigawatts of energy, which can power about a million homes. But in Coos Bay, the proposed site is drawing concerns from the fishing industry. Nick Edwards is the owner of the F/V Carter Jon. He's arguing the locations would eliminate fishing in those areas and worries the windmill turbines would harm the marine ecosystem. Edwards joins us to share his thoughts on the project. We'll also hear from Doug Boren, the Pacific Regional Director for BOEM. He tells us where Oregon is in the process and addresses some of the concerns.

Maine News on May 18: WIC programs in Maine can help eligible families with infant formula; Federal bureau of Ocean Energy Management convenes task force to consider off shore wind energy options; Pothole season in northern Maine hampers mail delivery

On October 1, 2021 an oil pipeline that was likely struck by a cargo ship's anchor leaked tens of thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean and onto the beaches of Orange County, CA. In this episode, examine how the oil spill happened by listening to testimony provided to both the U.S. Congress and the California State Senate, and learn about the disturbing lack of policing that is taking place under the sea. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Articles and Documents Nicole Charky. April 7, 2021. “LA City Council Urges Newsom To Close Playa Del Rey Oil Storage.” Patch. Nicole Charky. March 23, 2021. “Is It Time To Shut Down The Playa Del Rey Oil Storage Facility?” Patch. U.S. Government Accountability Office. Offshore Oil and Gas: Updated Regulations Needed to Improve Pipeline Oversight and Decommissioning. GAO-21-293. Jen's Highlighted PDF Heal the Bay. June 24, 2015 . “Confirmed: L.A. Tar Balls Linked to Santa Barbara Spill.” planetexperts.com Heal the Bay. August 20, 2012. “What Are Those Black Clumps on the Beach?” Sarah S. Elkind. June 1, 2012. “Oil in the City: The Fall and Rise of Oil Drilling in Los Angeles.” The Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 1. Tom Fowler. February 21, 2012. “U.S., Mexico Sign Deal on Oil Drilling in Gulf.“ The Wall Street Journal. APPEL News Staff. May 10, 2011. “Academy Case Study: The Deepwater Horizon Accident Lessons for NASA.” APPEL News, Volume 4, Issue 1. Offshore Technology. “Projects: Macondo Prospect, Gulf of Mexico.” Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. November 23, 1970. Treaty to Resolve Pending Boundary Differences and Maintain the Rio Grande and Colorado River as the International Boundary. Open Secrets Profiles Rep. Yvette Herrell - New Mexico District 02 Rep. Paul Gosar - Arizona District 04 Rep. Bruce Westerman - Arkansas District 04 Rep. Katie Porter - California District 45 Rep. Pete Stauber - Minnesota District 08 Images Playa del Ray in the 1920s 2021 Huntington Bay Oil Spill Image 1. CA State Senate: Natural Resources and Water Committee Informational Hearing Southern California Oil Spill: Preparation response, ongoing risks, and potential solutions. 2021Huntington Bay Oil Spill Image 2 CA State Senate: Natural Resources and Water Committee Informational Hearing Southern California Oil Spill: Preparation response, ongoing risks, and potential solutions. Mileage of Decommissioned Pipelines Removed Relative to Those Left in Place. GAO Analysis of Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Data, GAO-21-293. Potential Effects of Currents on Pipeline Leak Identification. GAO-21-293. Hearings Southern California Oil Spill: Preparation response, ongoing risks, and potential solutions California State Senate: Natural Resources and Water Committee Thursday, October 28, 2021 Witnesses: Chuck Bonham Head of California Department of Fishing and Wildlife Tom Cullen Administrator of OSPR (Offshore Spill Prevention and Response) Kim Carr Mayor Pro Tem, City of Huntington Beach Brian Nowicki California Climate Policy Director at the Center for Biological Diversity Pete Stauffer Environmental Director for the Surfrider Foundation Jennifer Lucchesi State Lands Commission Clips 3:44 Senator Henry Stern: But the pipeline that runs to Amplify and Beta Offshore's platform is the source of the oil production that runs through the pipeline in question. That pipeline is in federal jurisdiction but it brings that produced oil onshore into the state waters and eventually on state lands. 21:05 Chuck Bonham: What we now know is about four and a half miles offshore, so in federal waters, there's a pipeline that runs from one platform, which is a collection of three platforms operated by a company called Beta Offshore, owned by a company called Amplify Energy. That last platform, Ellie, has a pipeline which delivers the product 17.7 miles inland, where the pipe comes on shore just below the Queen Mary more or less, to land based infrastructure. That pipe had a rupture in it. And we now know based on visual and diver and other evidentiary efforts, that about 4000 feet of that pipeline was moved about 105 feet off of center. And in that stretch is about a 13 inch horizontal, almost like a hairline fracture. If you could imagine a bone break in a pipe, which is, I think, about 13 inches in diameter, concrete on the outside and metal on the inside. That's the likely source of the leak. 22:25 Chuck Bonham: From the very beginning moments, all of us involved assumed a worse case. At that moment in time we had a planning number of a spill of about 3,134 Barrels which is 131,000 gallons rounding as a maximum worst case. 30:59 Chuck Bonham: A month later we now think the likely spill number is 24,696 gallons 41:13 Chuck Bonham: Fortunately given the size of the spill, there were not as many wildlife casualties as could have occurred during a higher migration cycle. 1:25:47 Mayor Kim Carr: So starting off on Saturday, October 2, it's been brought up that yes, we did have a very large air show happening that day. About 1.5 million people were on the beach that day to see the Pacific Air Show. And around nine o'clock that morning, there were city personnel that heard an announcement on VHF channel 16 by the Coast Guard of a possible oil spill in the area, but nothing very specific. At that time, no major details, it wasn't anything to really worry about. By 10:30 in the morning, the Coast Guard had advised us that the spill was larger than originally thought. However, we didn't have a whole lot of information as to where the location of the spill was nor of the scope of the situation. By 11 o'clock that same day, the Coast Guard had announced that it was now going to be a major spill, and that the incident management team was being activated. 1:28:00 Mayor Kim Carr: At two o'clock, the Coast Guard had advised us that the oil spill would not be reaching the shores of Huntington Beach until Monday, October 4. And again, we didn't have a whole lot of information as to where the spill was. We knew it was off our coast, but we didn't know exactly where or exactly how large the spill was. But then interestingly enough, just a half hour later, we started to receive messages that there were boats that were experiencing oil damage just outside of the air show flight box. And so that became a concern for our city. So then we activated our fire crews, our hazmat team, or the oil spill response trailer and started to do the mitigation efforts. Then this is where it gets to be very, very interesting. At 2:45 the city was notified by the Newport Beach rescue vessel that there were private contractors conducting oil spill cleanups outside of the air show flight box. 1:32:42 Mayor Kim Carr: What we could have done better, what would have been an opportunity was perhaps if the Coast Guard had some sort of awareness, the night before or when that nine o'clock notification came through, we could have been even more proactive because as I said before, every hour during these crises matters. 1:34:00 Mayor Kim Carr: The Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve was spared. The Talbert Marsh does have oil damage and again looking back, if we could have had maybe a few more hours notice, we probably could have mitigated that damage even more than what we did. 1:43:17 Brian Nowicki: Like all of you, we at the Center for Biological Diversity are heartbroken by every oil and seabird and are alarmed at the miles of marshes and coastline that will be poisoned for years by this bill. We're angry that yet again, the oil industry has proven its inability to contain its toxic pollution. The structure of pipeline funding to beach proves yet again, that every piece of fossil fuel infrastructure is yet another disaster waiting to happen. And there is a lot of that infrastructure in California. It's increasingly old, outdated in disrepair and poorly located, like the 40 year old pipeline that gave us this most recent spill, all of which makes it increasingly dangerous. Looking beyond the nine oil platforms and islands in state water, there are 23 platforms in federal waters off California. But the fact that those 23 platforms are a little farther from shore should not give us much comfort. First, because oil spills from those operations still end up in our water, our beaches and our wildlife. But also as we've heard today, further from shore also means longer stretches of aging and dangerously vulnerable infrastructure, like the 17 mile long pipeline we're discussing today are clean, reliable federal regulations to protect us from oil spills in federal waters. Federal regulators continue to prove that they are perfectly willing to allow those platforms to continue operating to the last drop of oil despite the mounting dangers of decaying infrastructure well beyond its intended lifespan, outdated drilling plans, numerous violations and insufficient bonds to pay for decommissioning. 1:45:15 Brian Nowicki: But I want to be clear that this is not a problem unique to offshore platforms. At the exact same time that 10s of thousands of gallons of oil were rolling up onto beaches and marshes in Orange County, there was an oil spill in Kern County that is now approaching 5 million gallons of fluid, a mixture of crude oil, toxic wastewater, that includes 600,000 gallons of crude. In fact, in just the last few years, there have been many oil spills in California greater than the spill off Huntington Beach. In the Cymric field alone there were three huge spills in 2019 at 550,000 gallons, 836,000 and 1.2 million gallons respectively. 159,000 in Midway in 2019, 250,000 at McKittrick in 2020. There is another ongoing spill at a separator plant in Cymric that has been leaking since 2003 and has reportedly released as much as 84 million gallons of fluid to date. Now these numbers reflect total combined volumes of crude and produced water and mud, which constitute a toxic mix. As state agencies have testified before this legislature in the past, these dangerous onshore oil operations have contaminated groundwater, land, and wildlife. 1:46:32 Brian Nowicki: After more than 150 years of the oil industry drilling at will in California, the oil is gone and the bottom of the barrel that's left is harder and more dangerous to extract. There's also some of the most carbon polluting crude in the world. With the easy stuff taken, the oil industry is in decline in California, with production down 68% since 1985. The only question is how much more damage will this dying industry do on its way out? 1:49:10 Pete Stauffer: Now with the oil deposit seen as far south as the Mexico border, there are concerns that San Diego wetlands are also being impacted. Moreover, while birds, fish and marine mammals have been the most visibly impacted, the full scale of the ecological damage will take some time to become clear. In the week since the spill event, the oil slick has transformed into an incalculable number of tar balls in the ocean, while tar balls typically float, they can also find their way into underwater sediment or near shore habitats where their impacts on ecological health and wildlife may persist for years or even decades. 1:52:51 Pete Stauffer: According to the federal government there have been at least 44 oil spills since 1969 that have each released more than 10,000 barrels of oil into US waters 2:02:36 Mayor Kim Carr: Just to give you an idea of how much TOT we do receive in Huntington Beach, we receive about $16 million a year. We don't receive anything from those offshore platforms, nothing. And as far as the drilling that we currently have here in Huntington Beach, it's less than $700,000 a year. 2:05:54 Brian Nowicki: What I can't say though, for sure is that it's going to take longer than one season to see what the full impacts are to the local wildlife. And of course, it is wetlands and marshes that often are the most difficult and take the longest to recover from the sorts of impacts. 2:21:11 Jennifer Lucchesi: In 1921, the legislature created the first tidelands oil and gas leasing program. The existing offshore leases the commission is responsible for managing today were issued over a 30 year period between 1938 and 1968. Importantly, I want to highlight a specific act in 1995. The Cunningham shell Act, which serves as a foundational law for the existing legacy oil and gas leases the commission currently manages. Importantly, this Act required the commission to issue oil and gas leases for term not based on years, but for so long as oil and gas is produced in paying quantities. Essentially, this means that Alessi can produce oil and gas pursuant to their state lease indefinitely as long as it is economic for them to do so. 2:58:13 Jennifer Lucchesi: For pipelines that are solely within state waters and under lease with the State Lands Commission, we require the pipelines to be externally and internally inspected annually. And we have engineers on staff that review those inspections and consult with the fire marshal as well with our federal partners on any type of remedial action that needs to happen based on the results of those inspections. For those pipelines that cross both federal and state waters our authority is more limited because the federal government's regulatory authority takes precedence. And PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) is the primary federal agency that regulates those interstate pipelines. They require inspections externally and internally every two years. And that's what this pipeline at issue was subjected to, the platform Elly pipeline. 03:01:20 Senator Dave Min: Let's say you have a pipe and the lease term ends. What powers do you have? What are the considerations you have to follow either statutory or contractually to renew those permits, issue a new permit? Or alternatively, do you have any leeway contractually, statutorily to end those permits prematurely and say, you know, we don't think that, you know, the upkeep is appropriate, you're violating certain provisions, we're just gonna take away your permit prematurely. Do you have any leeway like that? So I'm just trying to get a sense of your flexibility, both in issuing new right of way permits, but also yanking away existing permits. Jennifer Lucchesi: Certainly. So I can give an example of our lease compliance and enforcement actions most recently, with a pipeline that served platforms Hogan and Houchin in the Santa Barbara Channel. Those are two federal platforms in federal waters, that pipeline that served those platforms did cross into state waters and connected on shore. That pipeline lessee of ours was not compliant with our lease terms and the commission took action to terminate those leases based on non compliance and default in breach of the lease terms. And essentially, that did terminate production on those two federal platforms. And they are part of the eight federal platforms that BOEM just announced they were going to be looking at as part of a programmatic EIS for decommissioning. The Commission does not have the authority to unilaterally terminate an existing valid lease absent any evidence of a breach or non compliance SOUTHERN CA OIL LEAK: INVESTIGATING THE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS ON COMMUNITIES, BUSINESSES, AND ENVIRONMENT House Committee On Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee October 18, 2021 Witnesses: Dr. Michael H. Ziccardi Director, Oiled Wildlife Care Network Executive Director, One Health Institute, School of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis Scott Breneman Commercial Fishing, Retail Market, and Restaurant Owner Newport Beach, CA Vipe Desai Founding Member, Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast Dr. David L. Valentine Norris Presidential Chair, Earth Science Professor of Marine Science, UC Santa Barbara Clips 15:44 Rep. Katie Porter: As of October 10, workers had recovered 250,000 pounds of oily debris and 14 barrels full of tar balls from the Orange County shorelines. That is a small fraction, though, of the oil that was released, most of which is being distributed in the ocean, making its way into the food chain or falling to the ocean floor. Some of that oil is now heading south. And we will not learn the long term consequences on the environment for many years to come. 17:39 Rep. Katie Porter: The witnesses here with us today will reveal a different kind of subsidy for oil and gas companies, an involuntary subsidy that occurs when the community bears the costs of oil drilling's pollution. When a locally owned business like Mr Brennaman that has been in the family for four generations loses tens of thousands of dollars because of the leak. That's his subsidies to oil and gas. When a hotel loses its bookings overnight. That's its subsidy for oil and gas. When the fragile decades-long effort to recover a species under the Endangered Species Act is finally showing progress, but an oil spill puts it all at risk. That's a cost of oil and gas to these subsidies and so many others are the reasons that oil wells like the ones behind this leak are still active. Getting rid of the subsidies is the first step to get rid of the problem. 27:52 Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA): We know that the spill was not reported by the responsible oil company until the next day, despite the company's knowledge. We also know that Orange County residents recognize that there was a problem in part due to the smell caused by this bill and actually reported it before the oil company did so, clearly something wrong with that. 28:35 Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA): In my congressional district, which is just the south of here, the spill shutdown businesses and beaches in Dana Point in San Clemente. Tarballs that are likely caused by the spill have also been found as far south in my district as Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas and Del Mar in San Diego County. 29:03 Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA): It'll come as no surprise that more than $2 billion in wages and $4 billion in gross domestic product are generated by Orange County's ocean and marine economy, including tourism. So we have a lot to lose every time there's a spill, not just to our beaches but to our economy. 39:30 Dr. Michael H. Ziccardi: In Birds, the primary issue we are concerned mostly about are the acute effects due to hypothermia. If you think of feathers almost as a dry suit in animals, if oil gets on that dry suit, it creates a hole that allows cold water to seep next to the skin. Birds can get very cold in the environment and start to waste away, they have to come ashore to stay warm, but they can no longer eat. So these birds actually can waste away in a matter of days unless proactive capture occurs. There can also be chronic effects in animals as well due to printing of oil off of the feathers or ingestion in their food items. Those chronic effects can include, in essence, effects on every organ system in an animal's body from reproductive effects liver, kidney, respiratory tracts, depending on the dose and the exposure and the toxin itself. 42:50 Scott Breneman: We were fishing on Friday, October 1, and we were coming in the harbor and I detected a distinct odor of oil and it was about midnight we're heading in. Kind of search around the boat. I thought maybe it was a spill on the boat or a hose broke. I went in the engine room, searched all the hatches where I keep all my extra fluids and everything, didn't find anything. Come the next day the press released that there was an actual oil spill, and my fish sales and my fish market, once that was released, they dropped drastically down, 90% this past few weeks since it was released. I've seen the same effect -- my family's been fishing for four generations and in the 90s my dad went through the oil spill that was off Seal Beach, in our fish market, the same exact response from the public scared, worried the products contaminated. A huge ripple effect all the way up to the wholesalers I deal with outside of Orange County there. They had concerns from their customers, their restaurants. And to rebuild that business when it happened in the 90s, I watched my dad struggle for months to get back to back to where it was and it's...I'm seeing the same exact thing happen here. A couple of days after the oil spill they had closed Newport Harbor. And so my boat was actually trapped inside of the harbor so I wasn't even able to go service my accounts. And it's just been, to tell you the truth, a very difficult couple of weeks and I'm not sure how long this is going to last. I'm not sure how the public's going to respond to it long term if there's still going to have some fear that the fish is contaminated. 46:20 Vipe Desai: In fact between 2007 and 2018 there were over 7000 oil spills in federal waters, an average of about two every day. 46:50 Vipe Desai: The first impact came from the much anticipated Pacific Air Show. As oil began to wash ashore, beaches were deemed unsafe for activity. On Saturday October 2nd, 1.5 million visitors saw the show from Huntington Beach, but the show's triumphant conclusion on Sunday was cancelled with little fanfare. Cancellations hit hotels and resorts almost immediately and their surrounding retail and restaurants suffered. Wing Lam, co-founder of Wahoo's Fish tacos, informed me that the Saturday before the oil spill felt like a busy summer day. But the following day, once word got out about the spill, it was a ghost town. In addition, as the spill moved south, their locations in Laguna Beach and San Clemente started to feel the impacts. Bobby Abdel, owner of Jack's Surfboards, had a similarly bleak weekend. He told me that once the oil spill was announced customer traffic plummeted. Their stores are facing a stockpile of unsold inventory from the US Open of Surfing and the Pacific Air Show. All nine of Jack's Surfboards locations were impacted in some form or another because of the spill. Later in the week, I received a call from a colleague, Wendy Marshall, a full time hard working mother of two who shared with me that her upcoming Airbnb reservations, a form of income to help her offset college tuition costs for her children, had mostly been cancelled. From Dana Point though dolphin and whale capital of the world and the first whale Heritage Site in the Americas. Giselle Anderson from local business Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari shared losses from trips and bookings into November could be down as much as 74% because of the oil spill. 52:15 Dr. David L. Valentine: I want to invoke my privilege as a university professor to start with a little bit of a history lesson. Many people think that the largest spill in US history occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. This is not correct. The largest spill in US history occurred in California. It was not the October 2021 spill that we're here to talk about today. Nor was it the 2015 refugio beach pipeline rupture on the gaviota coast. It was not the 2007 Cosco, Busan spill and San Francisco Bay. And it was not the 1997 platform Irene pipeline rupture of Annenberg Air Force Base. It was not the 1990 American traders spill off the coast of Huntington Beach. It was not the 1969 platform, an oil spill off of Santa Barbara, the one that helped spawn the environmental movement. Nor was it the sinking of the SS Montebello, an oil freighter that was hit by a Japanese torpedo off the coast of Cambria and World War Two. It was called the Lakeview Gusher. It occurred in Kern County, and it's estimated to have released around 380 million gallons of oil over an 18 month period starting in 1910. And I tell you this bit of California history because it punctuates five important points. First, oil production carries inherent risk. Second, California has suffered more than its fair share of spills. Third, the size of a spill is only one factor in determining its impact. Fourth, responsiveness and context matter. And fifth, every spill is different and that includes the impacts. 54:24 Dr. David L. Valentine: For the current spill, I have honed in on three key modes of exposure that concern me most: floating oil slicks that can impact organisms living at or near the sea surface, coastline areas such as wetlands where oil can accumulate and persist, and the sea floor, where oil can easily hide from view but may still pose longer term risks. Among these three, the fate of impacts of submerged oil is especially relevant to California, is the least well understood, and requires additional research effort. 59:40 Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): So recently I asked the Department of Interior about the specific kinds of subsidies that Beta Operating received. Beta is a subsidiary of Amplify Energy, and that's the company that owns the platforms and the pipelines that leaked off our coast. It turns out that they got nearly $20 million from the federal government, specifically because the oil wells are at the end of their lives and are not producing much oil, which makes them less profitable. So taxpayers are being asked to pay to encourage oil production in the Pacific Ocean by giving oil companies millions of dollars to do it. 1:00:39 Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): Beta operating is in line to get another $11 million to drill for new wells off the coast because that $11 million is needed, in their words, “to make production economic.” So taxpayers are being asked to pay Beta to drill new wells. That means wells that would otherwise not be drilled without our taxpayer subsidy. 01:02:52 Dr. Michael H. Ziccardi: What we have found, during and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, is that dolphins can be significantly impacted by oil, primarily through inhalation of the fumes at the surface and ingestion of the oil substances themselves. What we found is that it affects their immune system, it affects their reproductive tract, and it affects their gastrointestinal tract, so very significant changes. And that's information that is just now starting to come out in the publications from the Deepwater Horizon incident. 1:06:51 Vipe Desai: Had this oil spill moved north, it would have impacted two of the busiest ports in the nation, which account for billions of dollars of goods flowing in and out of both ports of LA and Long Beach. And that would have had an even larger impact to other communities across the US. 1:08:21 Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA): The annual oil production off the coast of California is about 1/3 of what our nation produces in a single day. So it really is a drop in the bucket when you consider the overwhelming potential for economic damage for environmental damage, the risks simply aren't worth it. 1:09:34 Vipe Desai: California's ocean economy generates $54.3 billion in revenue and supports 654,000 jobs. 1:25:15 Dr. David L. Valentine: In Orange County, the areas that I would look at most closely as being especially vulnerable on the environmental side would be the wetland environments. Places like Talbert Marsh where oil can surge in with the tide. And it can get trapped in those environments and it can get stuck and it won't come back out when the tide recedes. Those are especially vulnerable because they're these rich, diverse ecosystems. They provide a whole host of different services, whether it's flyways, or fisheries, or in keeping the nutrient levels moderated in coastal waters. And that oil can stick there and it can have a long term impact. And furthermore, cleanup in those cases can be very difficult because getting into a marsh and trying to clean it up manually can cause as much damage as oil can cause. 1:26:24 Dr. David L. Valentine: And then the other environment that I worry a lot about is the environment we can't see, that is what's going on under the surface of the ocean. And in that case, we can have oil that comes ashore and then gets pulled back offshore but is now denser because it's accumulated sand and other mineral matter. And that can be sticking around in the coastal ocean. We don't really understand how much of that there is or exactly where it goes. And that concerns me. 1:29:18 Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA): But Dr. Valentine, how concerned Do you think California should be that companies that own the offshore platforms, wells and pipelines might go bankrupt and pass decommissioning costs on to taxpayers? Dr. David L. Valentine: I think that we need to be very concerned. And this is not just a hypothetical, this is already happening. There are two instances that I can tell you about that I've been involved with personally. The first stems from the pipeline 901 rupture, also known as the Refugio, a big oil spill that happened in 2015. When that pipeline ruptured, it prevented oil from being further produced from platform Holley, off the coast of Santa Barbara just a few miles from my home. That platform when it was completely shut in, all 30 wells, was unable to produce any oil and the company, a small operator, went bankrupt. And then shortly thereafter, they went bankrupt again. And this time, they just gave up and they did something called quit claiming their lease back to the state of California. Meaning that the plugin abandonment and property commissioning fell into the lap of the State of California in that case, and that is an ongoing, ongoing saga. The second example I would give you is in Summerland. In 1896, the first offshore oil wells in this country were drilled from piers in Summerland. Those have been leaking over the years. And as recently as last year, there were three leaky oil wells coming up in Summerland. The state of California has found money to try alternative plug in abandonment strategies because anything traditional is not going to work on something that is 125 some odd years old. So that would be the second example where this is now falling into the taxpayers lap yet again. IMPACTS OF ABANDONED OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE NEED FOR STRONGER FEDERAL OVERSIGHT House Committee on Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. October 14, 2021 Witnesses: Dr. Donald Boesch Professor and President Emeritus, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Dr. Greg Stunz Endowed Chair for Fisheries and Ocean Health, and Professor of Marine Biology Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies Texas A&M University Robert Schuwerk Executive Director, North America Office Carbon Tracker Initiative Ms. Jacqueline Savitz Chief Policy Officer, Oceana Clips 10:34 Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN): I can certainly provide a summary of things that will help keep energy prices down: issue onshore and offshore lease sales; reinstate the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline; renew our commitment to exporting American energy, instead of importing foreign energy; reform a broken permitting process; and stop burdening domestic producers. 16:08 Dr. Donald Boesch: Oil and gas production from wells in less than 1000 feet of water declined as fuels discovered in the 80s and even earlier were depleted. Crude oil production in these relatively shallow waters declined by over 90% both in the Gulf and and in Southern California. Natural gas production in the OCS, which mainly came from the shallow water wells, declined by 80%. Offshore fossil energy production is now dominated in the deep water off the Gulf of Mexico, up to 7500 feet deep. Deepwater production grew by 38% just over the last 10 years since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. 17:05 Dr. Donald Boesch: Since the lifting of the crude oil export ban in 2016, last year there was 78% more crude oil exported from Gulf terminals, exported overseas, than actually produced in the US OCS and three times as much natural gas exported, than produced offshore. 18:06 Dr. Donald Boesch: So, the depletion of shallow water gas has left this legacy of old wells and declining resources and the infrastructure requires decommissioning and removal. Much of this infrastructure is not operated by the original leaseholders, but by smaller companies with lesser assets and technical and operational capacity. 18:40 Dr. Donald Boesch: Off Southern California there are 23 platforms in federal waters, eight of which are soon facing decommissioning. In the Gulf, on the other hand, there are 18,162 platforms and about 1000 of them will probably be decommissioned within this decade. 19:46 Dr. Donald Boesch: According to the GAO, as you pointed out, there are 600 miles of active pipelines in federal waters of the Gulf, and 18,000 miles of abandoned plant pipelines. The GAO found the Department of the Interior lacks a robust process for addressing the environmental and safety risk and ensuring clean up and burial standards are met. And also monitoring the long term fate of these, these pipelines. 20:54 Dr. Donald Boesch: At recent rates of production of oil and gas, the Gulf's crude oil oil reserves will be exhausted in only six or seven years. That is the proven reserves. Even with the undiscovered and economically recoverable oil that BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) estimates in the central and western Gulf, we would run out of oil about mid century. So unless some miracle allows us to capture all of the greenhouse gases that would be released, we really can't do that and achieve net zero emissions, whether it be by resource depletion, governmental or corporate policy, or investor and stockholder decisions. Offshore oil and gas production is likely to see it see a steep decline. So the greenhouse gas emissions pathway that we follow and how we deal with the legacy and remaining infrastructure will both play out over the next decade or two. 25:16 Dr. Greg Stuntz: In fact, these decades old structures hold tremendous amounts of fish biomass and our major economic drivers. A central question is, how do these structures perform in relation to mother nature or natural habitat and I'm pleased to report that in every parameter we use to measure that success. These artificial reefs produce at least as well are often better than the natural habitat. We observe higher densities of fish, faster growth and even similar output. Thus, by all measures, these data show artificial reefs are functioning at least equivalent on a per capita basis to enhance our marine resources. 28:54 Rob Schuwerk: When a company installs a platform and drills well, it creates an ARO, an obligation to reclaim that infrastructure when production ends. This costs money. But companies aren't required to get financial assurance for the full estimated costs today. Money to plug in active wells today comes from cash flows from oil and gas production. But what happens when that stops? The International Energy Agency sees peak oil and gas demand as early as 2025. This will make it harder to pay for decommissioning from future cash flows. Decommissioning is costly. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) data indicate that offshore AROs could range from $35 to over $50 billion while financial assurance requirements are about $3.47 billion. That is less than 10% of expected liability. The GAO believes these figures may actually underestimate the true costs of retiring the remaining deepwater infrastructure. 30:05 Rob Schuwerk: Only about a third of the unplug wells in the Gulf of Mexico have shown any production in the last 12 months. Why haven't the other two thirds already been retired? Because of uncertainty as to when to close and poor incentives. Infrastructure should be decommissioned when it's no longer useful. But the regulator has difficulty making that determination. This uncertainty explains why BSEE waits five years after a well becomes inactive to deem it no longer useful for operations with years more allowed for decommissioning. These delays increase the risk that operators will become unable to pay or simply disappear. We've seen this already with a variety of companies including Amplify Energy's predecessor Beta Dinoco off California and Fieldwood recently with Mexico. 30:55 Rob Schuwerk: There's also a problem of misaligned economic incentives. As it is virtually costless to keep wells unplugged, companies have no incentive to timely plug them. AROs are like an unsecured, interest free balloon loan from the government with no date of maturity. There's little incentive to save for repayment because operators bear no carrying cost and no risk in the case of default. If the ARO loan carried interest payments commensurate with the underlying non performance risk, producers would be incentivized to decommission non economic assets. The solution is simple, require financial assurance equivalent to the full cost of carrying out all decommissioning obligations. This could take the form of a surety bond, a sinking fund or some other form of restricted cash equivalent. If wells are still economic to operate, considering the carrying cost of financial assurance, the operator will continue production, if not they'll plug. In either case, the public is protected from these costs. 32:11 Rob Schuwerk: A key risk here is operator bankruptcy that causes liabilities to be passed on to others. And we could see this in the recent Fieldwood bankruptcy. Fieldwood was formed in 2012 and in 2013 acquired shallow water properties from Apache Corporation. It went through chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, and then undeterred, acquired additional deepwater platforms from Noble Energy. Fieldwood returned to bankruptcy in 2020. It characterized the decommissioning costs it shared with Apache as among the company's most significant liabilities. The bankruptcy plan created new companies to receive and decommission certain idle offshore assets. If they failed, prior operators and lessors would have to pay. Several large oil and gas companies objected to this proposal. They were concerned that if Fieldwood couldn't pay they would. Ultimately the plan was proved. The case illustrates a few key dynamics. First, if bankrupt companies cannot pay, others, including taxpayers, will. How much of the possibly $50 billion in offshore decommissioning liability is held by companies that are only a dragged anchor, a hurricane a leaking pipeline or oil price shock away from default? And second, as detailed in my written testimony, private companies who face liability risks understand them better than the government does. When they transfer wells, they demand financial protections that are in fact greater than what the government requires today. 36:02 Jacqueline Savitz: Supplemental bonds are necessary to protect taxpayers from the risk of spills but BOEM is overusing the waiver provisions that allow a financial strength test to waive requirements for supplemental bonds. BOEM regulations require that lessees furnish a relatively small general bond and while BOEM has discretion to acquire supplemental bonds, it generally waives those. General bonds that lessees are required to furnish don't come close to covering the cost of decommissioning and haven't been updated since 1993. Since that year, the cost of decommissioning has gone up in part because development has moved into deeper waters, only about 10% of offshore oil production in the Gulf was in deepwater in 1993. But by 2014, that figure rose to 80%. Regulations need to be updated to ensure the federal government and taxpayers are not left picking up the tab on decommissioning. According to GAO, only 8% of decommissioning liabilities in the Gulf of Mexico were covered by bonds or other financial assurance mechanisms, with the other 92% waived or simply unaccounted for. 38:06 Jacqueline Savitz: BSEE does not conduct oversight over decommissioning activities underway and it does not inspect decommissioned pipelines so the Bureau can't ensure that the industry has complied with required environmental mitigation. 38:17 Jacqueline Savitz: Leak detection technologies that the oil and gas industry touts as safer have not been proven to prevent major leaks. All pipelines in the Pacific region are reportedly equipped with advanced leak detection equipment. Though two weeks ago we saw exactly what can happen even with the so-called “Best Technology.” 42:00 Dr. Donald Boesch: In Hurricane Ida, all of a sudden appeared an oil slick, and it lasted for several days. And apparently it was traced to an abandoned pipeline that had not been fully cleared of all the residual oil in it so that all that oil leaked out during that incident. 47:59 Dr. Donald Boesch: One of the challenges though, is that this older infrastructure is not operating in the same standards and with the same capacity of those of the major oil companies that have to do that. So for example, when I noted that they detected this methane being leaked, they didn't detect it from the new offshore deepwater platforms which have all the right technology. It's in the older infrastructure that they're seeing. 54:14 Rob Schuwerk: There's actually one thing that exists offshore, joint and several liability, that only exists in certain jurisdictions onshore. So in some ways the situation onshore is worse. Because in some states like California you can go after prior operators if the current operator cannot pay, but in many jurisdictions you cannot. And our research has found that there is about $280 billion in onshore liability, and somewhere around 1% of that is covered by financial assurance bonds so, there is definitely an issue onshore rather than offshore. 55:04 Rob Schuwerk: The issue is just really giving them a financial incentive to be able to decommission. And that means they have to confront the cost of decommissioning and internalize that into their decision on whether continuing to produce from a well is economic or not. And so that means they need to have some kind of financial insurance in place that represents the actual cost. That could be a surety bond where they go to an insurer that acts as a guarantor for that amount. It could be a sinking fund, like we have in the context of nuclear where they go start putting money aside at the beginning, and it grows over time to be sufficient to plug the well at the end of its useful life. And there could be other forms of restricted cash that they maintain on the balance sheet for the benefit of these liabilities. 1:15:38 Jacqueline Savitz: Remember, there is no shortage of offshore oil and gas opportunity for the oil industry. The oil industry is sitting on so many, nearly 8.5 million acres of unused or non producing leases, 75% of the total lease acreage in public waters. They're sitting on it and not using it. So even if we ended all new leasing, it would not end offshore production. 1:22:35 Rob Schuwerk: Typically what we'll see as well to do companies will transfer these assets into other entities that have less financial means and wherewithal to actually conduct the cleanup. Rep. Katie Porter: So they're moving once they've taken the money, they've made the profit, then they're giving away they're basically transferring away the unprofitable, difficult, expensive part of this, which is the decommissioning portion. And they're transferring that. Are they transferring that to big healthy companies? Rob Schuwerk: No, often they're transferring it to companies that didn't exist even just prior to the transfer. Rep. Katie Porter: You mean a shell company? Rob Schuwerk: Yes. Rep. Katie Porter: Like an entity created just for the purpose of pushing off the cost of doing business so that you don't have to pay it even though you've got all the upside. Are you saying that this is what oil and gas companies do? Rob Schuwerk: We've seen this, yes. Rep. Katie Porter: And how does the law facilitate this? Rob Schuwerk: Well, I suppose on a couple of levels. On the one hand, there's very little oversight of the transfer. And so there's very little restriction from a regulatory standpoint, this is true, offshore and also onshore. So we see this behavior in both places. And then secondary to that there are actions that companies can take in bankruptcy that can effectively pass these liabilities on to taxpayers eventually and so some of it is to be able to use that event, the new company goes bankrupt. 1:25:01 Rob Schuwerk: Certainly no private actor would do what the federal government does, which is not have a security for these risks. MISUSE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS AND CORPORATE WELFARE IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY House Committee on Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations May 19, 2021 Witnesses: Laura Zachary Co-Director, Apogee Economics & Policy Tim Stretton Policy Analyst, Project on Government Oversight (POGO) Clips 27:10 Laura Zachary: There have long been calls for fiscal reforms to the federal oil and gas program. Compared to how states managed oil and gas leasing, the federal government forgoes at least a third of the revenue that could have been captured for taxpayers 27:25 Laura Zachary: On January 27 of this year, the Biden administration signed Executive Order 14008 that pauses issuing new federal oil and gas leases. And importantly, the language implies a temporary pause, only on issuing new leases, not on issuing drilling permits. This is a critical distinction for what the impacts of a pause could be. Very importantly, federal permitting data confirms that to date, there has been no pause on issuing drilling permits for both onshore and offshore. And in fact, since the pause began, Department of Interior has approved drilling permits at rates in line with past administrations. 37:08 Tim Stretton: Because taxpayers own resources such as oil and gas that are extracted from public lands, the government is legally required to collect royalties for the resources produced from leases on these lands. Project on Government Oversight's investigations into the federal government's oversight of the oil, gas and mining industries have uncovered widespread corruption that allows industry to cheat U.S. taxpayers out of billions of dollars worth of potential income. Given the amount of money at stake and the oil and gas industry's history of deliberately concealing the value of the resources they've extracted with the intent of underpaying royalties, the government should be particularly vigilant in ensuring companies pay their fair share for the resources they extract. 46:28 Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR): We are here today for the majority's attempt, which I believe is more of a publicity stunt to criticize the oil and gas industry than to talk about real facts and data. The playbook is a simple one: recycled talking points to vilify the industry and to paint a distorted picture of so-called good versus evil. I'm sure that we'll hear more about corporate subsidies that aren't. We'll hear about unfair royalty rates that aren't and we'll hear many other meme worthy talking points that fail the logic test. 47:35_ Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR): What we're -really talking about today is an industry that provides reliable and affordable energy to our nation. This isan industry that contributes to almost 10 million jobs and plays a vital role in our daily lives. In fact, we cannot conduct virtual hearings like this without the fossil fuel industry. And of course, when myself and my colleagues travel to Washington, DC, we rely on this industry to fly or to drive here. 49:33 Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR): But they ignore the real world consequences of demonizing this industry. The results are devastating job loss and the loss of public education funding to name just a few. 54:05 Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN): I also had a roundtable discussion and learned how New Mexico schools received nearly $1.4 billion in funding from oil and gas just last year. 55:08 Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): Mr. Stretton, how long has your organization been conducting oversight of oil and gas production on federal lands? Tim Stretton: For decades, I mean, we started doing this work in the early 90s. And actually, some of our earliest work in the space was uncovering in excess of a billion dollars in unpaid royalties to your home state of California. Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA): And you mentioned, what are some of the patterns? You've been doing this for decades? What are some of the patterns that you observe over time? Tim Stretton: The oil and gas industry working with each other to really undervalue the resources they were selling, fraudulently telling the government the value of those resources, which left billions of dollars in unpaid revenue going to the federal government. 1:01:09 Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ): There are some people who have made environmentalism a religion. Rather than focus on solutions that can make lives better for people, some would prefer to vilify an industry that provides immeasurable benefits to people's livelihood in the function of modern day society. 1:04:21 Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ): The other side looks at globalism, you know this environmental movement globally. So it makes more sense to me at least and folks I come from that we produce it cleaner more efficiently than anybody else in the world. And so that geopolitical application, if you're an environmentalist, you would want more American clean oil and gas out there versus Russian dirty or Chinese dirty gas. 02:37:23 Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT): In January state education superintendents in Wyoming, Miami, North Dakota, Alaska, and Utah submitted a letter to President Biden outlining their concerns with the administration's oil and gas ban which has reduced funding used to educate our rising generation. 02:43:35 Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM): I'm glad to be able to highlight the true success story of the oil and gas industry in my home state of New Mexico. To put it simply, the oil and gas industry is the economic backbone of New Mexico and has been for decades. The industry employs 134,000 People statewide and provides over a billion dollars each year to fund our public education. 02:44:30 Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM): Many of my Democratic colleagues have stated that green energy jobs can replace the loss of traditional energy jobs, like the 134,000 Oil and Gas jobs in my state. Many also say that we need to be transitioning to a completely carbon free energy grid. Can you tell me and the committee why both of those ideas are completely fantasy? Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

In this episode, WEN Greater Albany President, Ekin Senlet interviews Amanda Lefton, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Amanda tells the audience about her career journey and how she ended up at BOEM, sharing valuable advice she learned along the way. The Biden Administration has made it clear that offshore wind is an important part of America's growing renewable energy portfolio. Amanda discusses the future of offshore wind and shares BOEM's vision in achieving the goals set by the administration. Connect on LinkedIn: Amanda Lefton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-lefton-12043410/ Ekin Senlet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekin-senlet-2779422/ Learn more about: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: https://www.boem.gov/ Women's Energy Network: https://www.womensenergynetwork.org *Make sure to SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND REVIEW*

Annie Hawkins is the executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing industry associations and companies that are “committed to improving the compatibility of new offshore development with their businesses.” In this episode, Annie explains why commercial fishermen are opposing offshore wind projects, how the permitting process is tilted in favor of the developers, and why more people need to be concerned about the rush to install thousands of offshore platforms in America's coastal waters. (Note: Since we recorded this episode, RODA has sued the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management over the permit it granted to the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind project.)

Offshore wind has a lot to offer: Humboldt's wind resources are virtually unmatched in North America and we have the potential to produce gigawatts of low-carbon power off our coast and Humboldt Bay is one of the few ports on the West Coast capable of assembling the monster 600+ foot tall turbines, creating the potential that Humboldt Bay could become the American center of offshore wind technology. But the technology offers risks to the environment and the severity of these risks is hard to gauge because the technology has not been deployed in our ocean environments before.The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is close to opening up the coast for competitive bids for development. What is in store for Humboldt County? Matthew Marshall from the Redwood Coast Energy Authority joins Gang Green to discuss.REQUIRED READING:“Redwood Coast Offshore Wind,” Redwood Coast Energy Authority.Schatz Energy Research Center's offshore wind energy page features 24 reports (and that's just the first set!), recordings of panel discussions from Fall 2020, and more. Support the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODEProvided by Otter.aiEoin Trainor  00:00The views and opinions expressed in Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or the student media. Eoin Trainor  00:34Good evening Raleigh and welcome to this week's Eye on the Triangle an NC State student produced news show on WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1 Raleigh. I'm Eoin Trainor. On tonight's episode, you'll hear my interview with Brooke Dickhart, Brooke is the executive director of the Joel Fund Wake Forest nonprofit that serves veterans. The Joel Fund recently received a federal grant to implement one of its programs at Walter Reed Medical Center. We talked about that, the Joel funds mission and much more. Afterwards is Elizabeth Esser's interview with Dr. Paul Kaloostian, a neurosurgeon and author. Elizabeth talked to him about the effects of stress on college students cognitive functioning. But first you have a quick story from the North Carolina News Service enjoy. Nadia Ramlagan  01:15North Carolina is ramping up plans to lease offshore wind-energy areas to developers, as the Biden administration expresses support for those efforts. The green light comes one year before a decade-long Trump-era moratorium on offshore development is slated to go into effect – on July 1st of next year. Despite the pending moratorium, which includes wind-energy, Democratic Congresswoman Deborah Ross of Raleigh says the state is poised to be a leader in offshore power generation and manufacturing. Deborah Ross  01:43And, with a bipartisan effort in our delegation to seek the ability to harness the best offshore wind in the country – and associated research and technology that will go with it – it will benefit North Carolina for decades to come. Nadia Ramlagan  02:02Earlier this year, Ross sent a letter signed by a bipartisan group of North Carolina lawmakers urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold lease sales for two of the state's existing wind-energy areas in federal waters off the coast of Wilmington. It's unlikely the Trump moratorium on offshore development would be overturned in such a divided Congress. But Jaime Simmons of the Southeastern Wind Coalition says the most recent move is a sign the Biden administration is willing to take prompt action before the moratorium begins. Jaime Simmons  02:32We're in a unique position here in North Carolina, because we already have what's called wind energy areas identified. It gives a signal to those manufacturers; it gives them the certainty that they need to start making those investments. Nadia Ramlagan  02:47Director of North Carolina Political Affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund David Kelly points out the state already has a reputation as a clean-energy leader and a hub for clean tech. David Kelly  02:58It's reassuring to know that our state's leaders in Congress recognize the opportunity that offshore wind, emerging as a industry in the United States, offers. And that they're taking action to make sure North Carolina is well-positioned to compete for wind-energy jobs. Nadia Ramlagan  03:13Offshore wind is expected to create a 70-billion-dollar supply chain and tens of thousands of new jobs in the United States by 2030. For North Carolina News Service, I'm Nadia Ramlagan. Eoin Trainor  03:31This is Eoin Trainer with WKNC 88.1's Eye on the Triangle and I'm here with Brooke Dickhart, the executive director of the Joel Fund fund, a veterans nonprofit based in Wake Forest. Brooke, welcome to the program.  Brooke Dickhart  03:41Thank you so much for having me.  Eoin Trainor  03:43To start, would you mind telling us a little bit about what the Joel Fund does? Brooke Dickhart  03:48Absolutely. So the Joel Fund helps connect veterans to their communities. We do this through three main programs, we have a resource connection where we will work one on one with veterans and their family members to connect them to the services that they're looking for. We have operation art, which is our art classes for veterans and their family members. And then operation furnish, which is a furniture program locally where we can find gently used donated items for veterans in need. Eoin Trainor  04:20And I've heard that you have a new program of expressive writing classes as part of Operation Art would you mind telling us a little bit about that? Brooke Dickhart  04:27Absolutely. So this program was something that I started in honor of my dad because I after he passed away I found sheets of yellow legal paper where he had tried to write his story and I figured if he had trouble doing it then others probably do also. And so we started working with a with an amazing local writer to develop a class we also worked with a couple of veterans from the Vietnam Veterans of America to develop this class and we launched it a little over a year ago. And it has been a very successful program for us. Eoin Trainor  05:07And how have the veterans and their families who have taken the course responded, did they find it helpful? Brooke Dickhart  05:13Absolutely. They even asked us to bring in a therapist for the class. So our classes, we often say that there it's community therapeutic arts, we're not offering art therapy, however, with writing that can trigger a lot of emotions and that sort of thing. And the veterans who helped us develop the curriculum, really wanted there to be a therapist, as the safety net in the class, so that if they were writing about their time in the service, that they could do it in a safe and secure environment. And so because of those things that we have in place, they have really loved the class and have been able to write freely and feel that they can do it safely. Eoin Trainor  05:59And you recently received grant support for the program, what does that enable you to do anything new?  Brooke Dickhart  06:05Yes, so we just recently, were selected from a national search to do a writing program at Walter Reed Medical Military or Military Medical Center out of Bethesda, Maryland, to bring our writing program to their employee wellness program. So we work with people who work in the hospital, some of them are veterans, they are all caregivers, because of the population that they serve. We've even had a couple active duty soldiers who called in from overseas, you know, the technology that we have with virtual, you know, conference calls, and that sort of thing has really been our silver lining story, because we can now reach more veterans and family members across the world because of this technology, it doesn't have to just be centered to our area. And that has enabled us to take our writing program and expand it and bring it to the people at Walter Reed, which is been amazing. Eoin Trainor  07:09Then what was the transition between Wake Forest and Walter Reed like? Was there any kind of new challenges that you encountered? Brooke Dickhart  07:16Oh, yes, for sure. It's a, it's a much different dynamic when you're offering a writing class for people who work together. And in the military, you know, there's a hierarchy hierarchy. So there's a lot of considerations that we did not anticipate that we've had to navigate but they have renewed our contract. And so we're working through all that with Walter Reed. And they're it's their program is called creative forces. Creative forces is art therapy that is offered, I think it's um, 10 sites across the country, on bases, and then at Walter Reed. And so we've been working with the with the folks at creative forces and Walter Reed to make sure that the program is just right for their for the students that we are getting from them. Eoin Trainor  08:06And then the instructor assigns writing prompts, what are these like? And can you give us some examples of what some of them have been? Brooke Dickhart  08:16So the the writing prompts vary every week, and every class and that is based on who's in the class, and you know, what's going on around us during the time. But one example that I can give you that was for this week was described in vivid language, someone you deeply cared for who served our country, and his, and who is no longer with us. So that was their writing prompt heading into Memorial Day weekend. Eoin Trainor  08:48And if you don't mind, telling viewers, what kind of stuff if you know, did some of the veterans write for that one? Brooke Dickhart  08:55That I haven't seen yet actually, they they will be working on it for Actually, today. They have class today. So I haven't seen the writing yet.  Eoin Trainor  09:05And, did COVID kind of create any unique mental health related challenges for the veterans in your programs? And did you have to adjust any of them at all? Brooke Dickhart  09:18Absolutely. In fact, it was a very scary time for us as an organization that serves veterans, so many of the veterans that we work with come to us as direct referrals from the rec therapy department at the VA. So a lot of them are working through some mental illness and isolation is not a great thing for that population. And so we had to pivot immediately and figure out how to continue to serve them. And because one aspect of our classes is creating this sense of community, and connecting veterans and family members with their peers, we knew we needed to continue to bring that same feeling to these men and women, it's not just a class, we often say that art is just the vehicle. They do leave our classes learning an amazing skill. And they are taught by extremely, very well trained individuals. But we also mentor our instructors on military culture and how to create this feeling of community. And so we had to work very hard to continue to create that online. Of course, it's not a perfect match, but it has still been very effective and before the holidays, there was a group in fact, it was one of our writing classes got together and had a zoom holiday party, one class dressed up at Halloween. So we've really been able to still create this, this feeling of community even though we are online. Eoin Trainor  09:46And are veterans in the course, they're able to kind of share and talk about their writing and their experiences, correct? Brooke Dickhart  10:57Yes, they do love to share it's it's a very intimate group. Usually we have around five students give or take, you know, one or two more, it depends on you know, the day or the time, but they, they will always they have the option to share if they don't personally want to share the instructor will share for them but there is there is under no circumstance are they required to share. One thing that we are going to be doing very soon is now that things are starting to open up and we're able to get together in person again, we are planning to do a reading where the people who are in our class can meet in person, those who are local, and invite family members and friends and they will read their stories that they have written. Such a big part of it is being able to share in all of our classes, whether it's photography, or drawing or painting, they really take some pride in being able to share what they've created with their family members. Eoin Trainor  12:00Thanks for coming on. Brooke Dickhart  12:02Thank you, I really appreciate the opportunity. Elizabeth Esser  12:09I'm Elizabeth Esser with WKNC 88.1 Eye on the Triangle. Joining us today is renowned neurosurgeon, author and speaker Dr. Paul Kaloostian. Dr. Kaloostian is a Board Certified neurosurgeon and the author of numerous books, including the young neurosurgeon, lessons from my patients, from the eyes of a doctor, and my surgical cases told in poems. He's here today to discuss stress and how it affects the brain functions of college students. Dr. Kaloostian, thank you for joining us today on Eye on the Triangle to get us started. What exactly is stress? And what's going on in our brains when we experience it? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  12:49Yeah, that's so that's the that's the million dollar question. So stress is a essentially state of being where your brain and and body communicate in a certain specific way based on the hormones and neurotransmitters that are secreted at that time. And so we've all experienced it, we've all experienced stress, we all really know what what it is because we've we've been through it we experience on a daily basis. And certainly college students experience it, you know, because of everything they're going through in school and others. So but it's but it's really a process that is really regulated by the brain itself. There are specific areas that do that. And these areas secrete hormones and neurotransmitters through our bloodstream that then make our other areas of our body realize, hmm, something's not right, I should feel a certain way, which is stress. So that's what really happens during that stressful moment, or moments of our lives. Elizabeth Esser  14:07And can stress have lasting effects on our brains and bodies? And if so, what does that look like? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  14:14Absolutely. And once again, you know, similar to what I just said before, we've all experienced it. We've had moments where, let's say we're in a particular situation and  we've been in that situation before. So our minds go back to that prior time or times where we've been in that situation. And that makes us nervous and stressed. You know, for example, public speaking, let's say you've, you gave a talk once and something bad happened. I don't know. Maybe someone laughed  at you or you said a word wrong or whatever. And so the next time or next few times after that, you can always remember that particular event where you had a tough time right? So that the the memory center of the brain the hippocampus, We call it is super important in this whole stress response. And so there are permanent features because obviously years later we remember these episodes way back early on in the past. And and so the brain really remembers what had happened in the past so certainly there are permanent aspects to it and there are actually genetic components to it. So stress can affect your actual DNA, believe it or not through a variety of responses, but often through repeated experiences of stress over time. The common thing is, let's say someone you know, a young child, you know, witnesses domestic violence between the parents or some multiple arguments between parents or others. If that happens, often, what has been found is that there's genetic alterations, so that that particular child really, experiences stress a different way, if they see that particular episode. And it's based on all these neurotransmitters that are secreted that affect proteins that are expressed on our surfaces of ourselves. So certainly, there are permanent aspects in many, many ways, as I just mentioned. Elizabeth Esser  16:17And college students undergo a lot of stress for a multitude of reasons. are college aged people differently affected by stress compared to other age groups? And if so, in what ways? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  16:30Well, I think everyone experiences stress differently. And I don't know if I would break it down by age. And I don't know if there are any specific studies that do that. But I think the, the process of experiencing stress in handling stress is really a human trait, meaning, it probably isn't going to be very, very different among all of us, we probably all feel somewhat similar in, in different situations, and how we react to that particular stressor in our life. But certainly, you know, I've done a lot of schooling to become a neurosurgeon, I've been in school for a long, long time, and then training for a long, long time. That comes with a lot of difficult times. I mean, there are a lot of great times to but there's a lot of difficult times, that certainly are stressful. And I remember studying for finals, midterm exams, just all of that, I mean, I'm so thankful that's over. But that certainly was tough. But you know, I want also your audience to know that stress can also be very good, there's, there's good stress, there's kind of a mediocre, or a medium level of stress. And then there's toxic stress. So there's, there's really a variety of different types of stress in the body. And so and I would say that, it's actually a very healthy thing to have some stress in our lives, because it, it actually motivates us to do things we likely wouldn't do if we didn't have this little push, or this little heart rate increase, you know, to get us doing these things. But But I think, you know, college students, they experience, a significant amount of stress. And I think that, you know, most colleges, most universities, have environments where, where students are able to really tap into to look for help to look for methods of de stressing, I think that's very valuable in, in the university setting. Certainly, you know, the places I've went, those those things were present and very helpful. But, but I think most of us experience stress quite similarly. Elizabeth Esser  19:09So like everyone, college students have experienced many new situations in the last year due to COVID. You know, we've switched from in person classes to online learning. And students have been, have experienced isolation due to social distancing, among other things. How have these changes maybe affected stress levels or mental health as a whole in students Dr. Paul Kaloostian  19:38Significantly increased these these issues. I mean, and I see it in many of my patients, I would say, almost daily. I can't tell you how many patients I see that that tell me about all the difficult times that they're going through since COVID. And actually, I think we've, we've we've coined a new phrase post COVID stress disorder, kinda like a post traumatic stress disorder, but it's a post COVID stress disorder, it's really becoming the kind of the new theme now, among medical providers and psychologists. And, I mean, just as you can imagine, Elizabeth, I mean, just just picture, you know, losing someone close to you, and you're not able to go to the hospital to see them. And they're not doing well, and some may pass, you know, just just that situation alone. Imagine that, you know, let's say someone closest to you, you know, how do you handle that, you know, you're just hearing them on the phone, you know, and, you know, and that's the, that's just one situation, imagine other types of situations during  COVID, where people have lost their jobs that, you know, literally companies have fallen under, and people have been fired, literally fired, lost their jobs. I know many people where that's happened to, and, and they have no income, no income source, they have kids, they have grandkids, they have mortgages, etc. Imagine that stress. There's so many, so many different situations, with COVID, where people weren't prepared. And, and how can you be, you know, this is something out of the blue and, and it has really dramatically, unfortunately, affected people's lives in such a negative way. And, but like I said, I think this this disorder is really very important nowadays, you know, for all providers, and psychologists seeing patients, even nurses, others, you're going to see this, that's probably going to be be seen in many, many patients for many years to come. It's a very significant problem. And it just is difficult to to really deal with just given the acuity of COVID how it happened just so quickly, so suddenly. And, and just the psychological component to, to dealing with all of these stresses all at once, I think is is compounding The, the the difficulty of really treating, treating this. So I think it's it's very valuable to really understand what's going on in people's lives, especially as providers to really try and help them best where we can. Elizabeth Esser  22:46Right? Well, absolutely. We've all gone through this very traumatic experience. So I guess, going off of that, we're now at this point where we're sort of transitioning back into normal life, you know, students are returning back to campus this coming semester. Do you have any tips on how students can cope with stress as we make this transition? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  23:15Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there are a lot of healthy ways to, to deal with with stress in your life. And I know there are a lot of studies identifying exercise as a very, very critical means of de stressing and, and I won't go into the specific mechanisms of why that that is so but but certainly, you can understand it through exercise, there's a better blood flow throughout the body, because the heart is not pumping stronger, and our muscles are all squeezing the blood back to the heart. And so there's more, there's more blood supply to important areas of our brain and heart and other parts of our body that that allow us to, to clear our minds to have that energy to think beyond the stress and to move forward towards solutions. So I think exercise is just so so invaluable. Sleeping is very critical. Most studies recommend probably about six hours of uninterrupted sleep a day. I think that is fair and valid. Sleep is essentially really the one of the only ways our body can recharge itself. And that's the way I think of sleep. I think of sleep as kind of like charging your phone or charging you know, whatever you need to charge. It's that means of recharging the system or rebooting the system. And during the course of it, a typical day for a college student and others that they can beat you down so to speak just with all the activities that occur both physically and psychologically, you get tired, you get beaten down, your brain is injured, your body's injured. And so that sleep is just so valuable for those six hours or so, to really help those areas of the brain and body just heal, so that it can then do the same thing the following day in a, in a safe way. So I think sleep is so critical. Obviously, counseling, there are and should be, at least at most universities, I'm sure North Carolina State that has methods of seeking help, psychologically, someone to just speak to perhaps a counselor or psychologist others. And I think that is great. I don't think there's any negative stigma attached to that, I think more people should do that. And, you know, we're all social beings, we all need communication needs social interaction. And so I think that's, that's crucial to be able to communicate with someone who's trained to, to help others deal with with tough situations, so that you can then, by speaking, work through those problems that have tangible solutions. I think those are some of the solutions that I would recommend. Elizabeth.  Elizabeth Esser  26:28Great. Thank you so much. And then I guess, finally, is there anything else that you'd like to add? Regarding the topic of stress and college students? what you're working on or anything else? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  26:40Well, you know, I am a writer. So I think writing, you know, would be a fantastic way of de stressing, it's one of the one of the reasons why I have kind of partook in, in, in writing is because it really enabled me to, to de stress. As you could imagine, I just see so many sick, sick patients, gunshot wounds to the head and assaults to the head and spine. And I have to fix this and, and after a while, after many, many 1000s of these cases, I needed to just have an outlet. So I think for me, poetry or in writing, were my methods of doing that. And it really was super helpful. So I would recommend that, you know, the students in college university. Right. And it could be anything could be short poems, like haikus, or it could be a memoir of what they've experienced in their life. I'm sure people would love to read about that. And I think through that, you can get these these emotions out of your system. And I think that'll help you be a little bit more calm and collected and able to tackle any of the next challenges that come your way. Elizabeth Esser  27:56Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Dr. Kaloostian. The work you do is so important, and it was truly a pleasure speaking with you.  Dr. Paul Kaloostian  28:03Pleasures all mine. Thank you. Eoin Trainor  28:09And that is it for this week's Eye on the Triangle. Thanks for tuning in. If you have any questions, comments, ideas, or like to get involved with the Eye on the Triangle team, shoot us an email at public affairs@wknc.org. We'd love to hear from you. Stay tuned for your regular programming. We'll see you next time.

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODEProvided by Otter.aiEoin Trainor  00:00The views and opinions expressed in Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or the student media. Eoin Trainor  00:34Good evening Raleigh and welcome to this week's Eye on the Triangle an NC State student produced news show on WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1 Raleigh. I'm Eoin Trainor. On tonight's episode, you'll hear my interview with Brooke Dickhart, Brooke is the executive director of the Joel Fund Wake Forest nonprofit that serves veterans. The Joel Fund recently received a federal grant to implement one of its programs at Walter Reed Medical Center. We talked about that, the Joel funds mission and much more. Afterwards is Elizabeth Esser's interview with Dr. Paul Kaloostian, a neurosurgeon and author. Elizabeth talked to him about the effects of stress on college students cognitive functioning. But first you have a quick story from the North Carolina News Service enjoy. Nadia Ramlagan  01:15North Carolina is ramping up plans to lease offshore wind-energy areas to developers, as the Biden administration expresses support for those efforts. The green light comes one year before a decade-long Trump-era moratorium on offshore development is slated to go into effect – on July 1st of next year. Despite the pending moratorium, which includes wind-energy, Democratic Congresswoman Deborah Ross of Raleigh says the state is poised to be a leader in offshore power generation and manufacturing. Deborah Ross  01:43And, with a bipartisan effort in our delegation to seek the ability to harness the best offshore wind in the country – and associated research and technology that will go with it – it will benefit North Carolina for decades to come. Nadia Ramlagan  02:02Earlier this year, Ross sent a letter signed by a bipartisan group of North Carolina lawmakers urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold lease sales for two of the state's existing wind-energy areas in federal waters off the coast of Wilmington. It's unlikely the Trump moratorium on offshore development would be overturned in such a divided Congress. But Jaime Simmons of the Southeastern Wind Coalition says the most recent move is a sign the Biden administration is willing to take prompt action before the moratorium begins. Jaime Simmons  02:32We're in a unique position here in North Carolina, because we already have what's called wind energy areas identified. It gives a signal to those manufacturers; it gives them the certainty that they need to start making those investments. Nadia Ramlagan  02:47Director of North Carolina Political Affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund David Kelly points out the state already has a reputation as a clean-energy leader and a hub for clean tech. David Kelly  02:58It's reassuring to know that our state's leaders in Congress recognize the opportunity that offshore wind, emerging as a industry in the United States, offers. And that they're taking action to make sure North Carolina is well-positioned to compete for wind-energy jobs. Nadia Ramlagan  03:13Offshore wind is expected to create a 70-billion-dollar supply chain and tens of thousands of new jobs in the United States by 2030. For North Carolina News Service, I'm Nadia Ramlagan. Eoin Trainor  03:31This is Eoin Trainer with WKNC 88.1's Eye on the Triangle and I'm here with Brooke Dickhart, the executive director of the Joel Fund fund, a veterans nonprofit based in Wake Forest. Brooke, welcome to the program.  Brooke Dickhart  03:41Thank you so much for having me.  Eoin Trainor  03:43To start, would you mind telling us a little bit about what the Joel Fund does? Brooke Dickhart  03:48Absolutely. So the Joel Fund helps connect veterans to their communities. We do this through three main programs, we have a resource connection where we will work one on one with veterans and their family members to connect them to the services that they're looking for. We have operation art, which is our art classes for veterans and their family members. And then operation furnish, which is a furniture program locally where we can find gently used donated items for veterans in need. Eoin Trainor  04:20And I've heard that you have a new program of expressive writing classes as part of Operation Art would you mind telling us a little bit about that? Brooke Dickhart  04:27Absolutely. So this program was something that I started in honor of my dad because I after he passed away I found sheets of yellow legal paper where he had tried to write his story and I figured if he had trouble doing it then others probably do also. And so we started working with a with an amazing local writer to develop a class we also worked with a couple of veterans from the Vietnam Veterans of America to develop this class and we launched it a little over a year ago. And it has been a very successful program for us. Eoin Trainor  05:07And how have the veterans and their families who have taken the course responded, did they find it helpful? Brooke Dickhart  05:13Absolutely. They even asked us to bring in a therapist for the class. So our classes, we often say that there it's community therapeutic arts, we're not offering art therapy, however, with writing that can trigger a lot of emotions and that sort of thing. And the veterans who helped us develop the curriculum, really wanted there to be a therapist, as the safety net in the class, so that if they were writing about their time in the service, that they could do it in a safe and secure environment. And so because of those things that we have in place, they have really loved the class and have been able to write freely and feel that they can do it safely. Eoin Trainor  05:59And you recently received grant support for the program, what does that enable you to do anything new?  Brooke Dickhart  06:05Yes, so we just recently, were selected from a national search to do a writing program at Walter Reed Medical Military or Military Medical Center out of Bethesda, Maryland, to bring our writing program to their employee wellness program. So we work with people who work in the hospital, some of them are veterans, they are all caregivers, because of the population that they serve. We've even had a couple active duty soldiers who called in from overseas, you know, the technology that we have with virtual, you know, conference calls, and that sort of thing has really been our silver lining story, because we can now reach more veterans and family members across the world because of this technology, it doesn't have to just be centered to our area. And that has enabled us to take our writing program and expand it and bring it to the people at Walter Reed, which is been amazing. Eoin Trainor  07:09Then what was the transition between Wake Forest and Walter Reed like? Was there any kind of new challenges that you encountered? Brooke Dickhart  07:16Oh, yes, for sure. It's a, it's a much different dynamic when you're offering a writing class for people who work together. And in the military, you know, there's a hierarchy hierarchy. So there's a lot of considerations that we did not anticipate that we've had to navigate but they have renewed our contract. And so we're working through all that with Walter Reed. And they're it's their program is called creative forces. Creative forces is art therapy that is offered, I think it's um, 10 sites across the country, on bases, and then at Walter Reed. And so we've been working with the with the folks at creative forces and Walter Reed to make sure that the program is just right for their for the students that we are getting from them. Eoin Trainor  08:06And then the instructor assigns writing prompts, what are these like? And can you give us some examples of what some of them have been? Brooke Dickhart  08:16So the the writing prompts vary every week, and every class and that is based on who's in the class, and you know, what's going on around us during the time. But one example that I can give you that was for this week was described in vivid language, someone you deeply cared for who served our country, and his, and who is no longer with us. So that was their writing prompt heading into Memorial Day weekend. Eoin Trainor  08:48And if you don't mind, telling viewers, what kind of stuff if you know, did some of the veterans write for that one? Brooke Dickhart  08:55That I haven't seen yet actually, they they will be working on it for Actually, today. They have class today. So I haven't seen the writing yet.  Eoin Trainor  09:05And, did COVID kind of create any unique mental health related challenges for the veterans in your programs? And did you have to adjust any of them at all? Brooke Dickhart  09:18Absolutely. In fact, it was a very scary time for us as an organization that serves veterans, so many of the veterans that we work with come to us as direct referrals from the rec therapy department at the VA. So a lot of them are working through some mental illness and isolation is not a great thing for that population. And so we had to pivot immediately and figure out how to continue to serve them. And because one aspect of our classes is creating this sense of community, and connecting veterans and family members with their peers, we knew we needed to continue to bring that same feeling to these men and women, it's not just a class, we often say that art is just the vehicle. They do leave our classes learning an amazing skill. And they are taught by extremely, very well trained individuals. But we also mentor our instructors on military culture and how to create this feeling of community. And so we had to work very hard to continue to create that online. Of course, it's not a perfect match, but it has still been very effective and before the holidays, there was a group in fact, it was one of our writing classes got together and had a zoom holiday party, one class dressed up at Halloween. So we've really been able to still create this, this feeling of community even though we are online. Eoin Trainor  09:46And are veterans in the course, they're able to kind of share and talk about their writing and their experiences, correct? Brooke Dickhart  10:57Yes, they do love to share it's it's a very intimate group. Usually we have around five students give or take, you know, one or two more, it depends on you know, the day or the time, but they, they will always they have the option to share if they don't personally want to share the instructor will share for them but there is there is under no circumstance are they required to share. One thing that we are going to be doing very soon is now that things are starting to open up and we're able to get together in person again, we are planning to do a reading where the people who are in our class can meet in person, those who are local, and invite family members and friends and they will read their stories that they have written. Such a big part of it is being able to share in all of our classes, whether it's photography, or drawing or painting, they really take some pride in being able to share what they've created with their family members. Eoin Trainor  12:00Thanks for coming on. Brooke Dickhart  12:02Thank you, I really appreciate the opportunity. Elizabeth Esser  12:09I'm Elizabeth Esser with WKNC 88.1 Eye on the Triangle. Joining us today is renowned neurosurgeon, author and speaker Dr. Paul Kaloostian. Dr. Kaloostian is a Board Certified neurosurgeon and the author of numerous books, including the young neurosurgeon, lessons from my patients, from the eyes of a doctor, and my surgical cases told in poems. He's here today to discuss stress and how it affects the brain functions of college students. Dr. Kaloostian, thank you for joining us today on Eye on the Triangle to get us started. What exactly is stress? And what's going on in our brains when we experience it? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  12:49Yeah, that's so that's the that's the million dollar question. So stress is a essentially state of being where your brain and and body communicate in a certain specific way based on the hormones and neurotransmitters that are secreted at that time. And so we've all experienced it, we've all experienced stress, we all really know what what it is because we've we've been through it we experience on a daily basis. And certainly college students experience it, you know, because of everything they're going through in school and others. So but it's but it's really a process that is really regulated by the brain itself. There are specific areas that do that. And these areas secrete hormones and neurotransmitters through our bloodstream that then make our other areas of our body realize, hmm, something's not right, I should feel a certain way, which is stress. So that's what really happens during that stressful moment, or moments of our lives. Elizabeth Esser  14:07And can stress have lasting effects on our brains and bodies? And if so, what does that look like? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  14:14Absolutely. And once again, you know, similar to what I just said before, we've all experienced it. We've had moments where, let's say we're in a particular situation and  we've been in that situation before. So our minds go back to that prior time or times where we've been in that situation. And that makes us nervous and stressed. You know, for example, public speaking, let's say you've, you gave a talk once and something bad happened. I don't know. Maybe someone laughed  at you or you said a word wrong or whatever. And so the next time or next few times after that, you can always remember that particular event where you had a tough time right? So that the the memory center of the brain the hippocampus, We call it is super important in this whole stress response. And so there are permanent features because obviously years later we remember these episodes way back early on in the past. And and so the brain really remembers what had happened in the past so certainly there are permanent aspects to it and there are actually genetic components to it. So stress can affect your actual DNA, believe it or not through a variety of responses, but often through repeated experiences of stress over time. The common thing is, let's say someone you know, a young child, you know, witnesses domestic violence between the parents or some multiple arguments between parents or others. If that happens, often, what has been found is that there's genetic alterations, so that that particular child really, experiences stress a different way, if they see that particular episode. And it's based on all these neurotransmitters that are secreted that affect proteins that are expressed on our surfaces of ourselves. So certainly, there are permanent aspects in many, many ways, as I just mentioned. Elizabeth Esser  16:17And college students undergo a lot of stress for a multitude of reasons. are college aged people differently affected by stress compared to other age groups? And if so, in what ways? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  16:30Well, I think everyone experiences stress differently. And I don't know if I would break it down by age. And I don't know if there are any specific studies that do that. But I think the, the process of experiencing stress in handling stress is really a human trait, meaning, it probably isn't going to be very, very different among all of us, we probably all feel somewhat similar in, in different situations, and how we react to that particular stressor in our life. But certainly, you know, I've done a lot of schooling to become a neurosurgeon, I've been in school for a long, long time, and then training for a long, long time. That comes with a lot of difficult times. I mean, there are a lot of great times to but there's a lot of difficult times, that certainly are stressful. And I remember studying for finals, midterm exams, just all of that, I mean, I'm so thankful that's over. But that certainly was tough. But you know, I want also your audience to know that stress can also be very good, there's, there's good stress, there's kind of a mediocre, or a medium level of stress. And then there's toxic stress. So there's, there's really a variety of different types of stress in the body. And so and I would say that, it's actually a very healthy thing to have some stress in our lives, because it, it actually motivates us to do things we likely wouldn't do if we didn't have this little push, or this little heart rate increase, you know, to get us doing these things. But But I think, you know, college students, they experience, a significant amount of stress. And I think that, you know, most colleges, most universities, have environments where, where students are able to really tap into to look for help to look for methods of de stressing, I think that's very valuable in, in the university setting. Certainly, you know, the places I've went, those those things were present and very helpful. But, but I think most of us experience stress quite similarly. Elizabeth Esser  19:09So like everyone, college students have experienced many new situations in the last year due to COVID. You know, we've switched from in person classes to online learning. And students have been, have experienced isolation due to social distancing, among other things. How have these changes maybe affected stress levels or mental health as a whole in students Dr. Paul Kaloostian  19:38Significantly increased these these issues. I mean, and I see it in many of my patients, I would say, almost daily. I can't tell you how many patients I see that that tell me about all the difficult times that they're going through since COVID. And actually, I think we've, we've we've coined a new phrase post COVID stress disorder, kinda like a post traumatic stress disorder, but it's a post COVID stress disorder, it's really becoming the kind of the new theme now, among medical providers and psychologists. And, I mean, just as you can imagine, Elizabeth, I mean, just just picture, you know, losing someone close to you, and you're not able to go to the hospital to see them. And they're not doing well, and some may pass, you know, just just that situation alone. Imagine that, you know, let's say someone closest to you, you know, how do you handle that, you know, you're just hearing them on the phone, you know, and, you know, and that's the, that's just one situation, imagine other types of situations during  COVID, where people have lost their jobs that, you know, literally companies have fallen under, and people have been fired, literally fired, lost their jobs. I know many people where that's happened to, and, and they have no income, no income source, they have kids, they have grandkids, they have mortgages, etc. Imagine that stress. There's so many, so many different situations, with COVID, where people weren't prepared. And, and how can you be, you know, this is something out of the blue and, and it has really dramatically, unfortunately, affected people's lives in such a negative way. And, but like I said, I think this this disorder is really very important nowadays, you know, for all providers, and psychologists seeing patients, even nurses, others, you're going to see this, that's probably going to be be seen in many, many patients for many years to come. It's a very significant problem. And it just is difficult to to really deal with just given the acuity of COVID how it happened just so quickly, so suddenly. And, and just the psychological component to, to dealing with all of these stresses all at once, I think is is compounding The, the the difficulty of really treating, treating this. So I think it's it's very valuable to really understand what's going on in people's lives, especially as providers to really try and help them best where we can. Elizabeth Esser  22:46Right? Well, absolutely. We've all gone through this very traumatic experience. So I guess, going off of that, we're now at this point where we're sort of transitioning back into normal life, you know, students are returning back to campus this coming semester. Do you have any tips on how students can cope with stress as we make this transition? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  23:15Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there are a lot of healthy ways to, to deal with with stress in your life. And I know there are a lot of studies identifying exercise as a very, very critical means of de stressing and, and I won't go into the specific mechanisms of why that that is so but but certainly, you can understand it through exercise, there's a better blood flow throughout the body, because the heart is not pumping stronger, and our muscles are all squeezing the blood back to the heart. And so there's more, there's more blood supply to important areas of our brain and heart and other parts of our body that that allow us to, to clear our minds to have that energy to think beyond the stress and to move forward towards solutions. So I think exercise is just so so invaluable. Sleeping is very critical. Most studies recommend probably about six hours of uninterrupted sleep a day. I think that is fair and valid. Sleep is essentially really the one of the only ways our body can recharge itself. And that's the way I think of sleep. I think of sleep as kind of like charging your phone or charging you know, whatever you need to charge. It's that means of recharging the system or rebooting the system. And during the course of it, a typical day for a college student and others that they can beat you down so to speak just with all the activities that occur both physically and psychologically, you get tired, you get beaten down, your brain is injured, your body's injured. And so that sleep is just so valuable for those six hours or so, to really help those areas of the brain and body just heal, so that it can then do the same thing the following day in a, in a safe way. So I think sleep is so critical. Obviously, counseling, there are and should be, at least at most universities, I'm sure North Carolina State that has methods of seeking help, psychologically, someone to just speak to perhaps a counselor or psychologist others. And I think that is great. I don't think there's any negative stigma attached to that, I think more people should do that. And, you know, we're all social beings, we all need communication needs social interaction. And so I think that's, that's crucial to be able to communicate with someone who's trained to, to help others deal with with tough situations, so that you can then, by speaking, work through those problems that have tangible solutions. I think those are some of the solutions that I would recommend. Elizabeth.  Elizabeth Esser  26:28Great. Thank you so much. And then I guess, finally, is there anything else that you'd like to add? Regarding the topic of stress and college students? what you're working on or anything else? Dr. Paul Kaloostian  26:40Well, you know, I am a writer. So I think writing, you know, would be a fantastic way of de stressing, it's one of the one of the reasons why I have kind of partook in, in, in writing is because it really enabled me to, to de stress. As you could imagine, I just see so many sick, sick patients, gunshot wounds to the head and assaults to the head and spine. And I have to fix this and, and after a while, after many, many 1000s of these cases, I needed to just have an outlet. So I think for me, poetry or in writing, were my methods of doing that. And it really was super helpful. So I would recommend that, you know, the students in college university. Right. And it could be anything could be short poems, like haikus, or it could be a memoir of what they've experienced in their life. I'm sure people would love to read about that. And I think through that, you can get these these emotions out of your system. And I think that'll help you be a little bit more calm and collected and able to tackle any of the next challenges that come your way. Elizabeth Esser  27:56Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Dr. Kaloostian. The work you do is so important, and it was truly a pleasure speaking with you.  Dr. Paul Kaloostian  28:03Pleasures all mine. Thank you. Eoin Trainor  28:09And that is it for this week's Eye on the Triangle. Thanks for tuning in. If you have any questions, comments, ideas, or like to get involved with the Eye on the Triangle team, shoot us an email at public affairs@wknc.org. We'd love to hear from you. Stay tuned for your regular programming. We'll see you next time.

There are more than a dozen offshore wind projects currently proposed off the U.S. East Coast, which together could power millions of homes. But the proposed projects must balance the need for renewable energy with concerns from and commercial ocean users, like fishermen. For more on how the Biden Administration sees offshore wind, Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Amanda Lefton, the Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

There are more than a dozen offshore wind projects currently proposed off the U.S. East Coast, which together could power millions of homes. But the proposed projects must balance the need for renewable energy with concerns from and commercial ocean users, like fishermen. For more on how the Biden Administration sees offshore wind, Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Amanda Lefton, the Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

The Biden Administration has made clear that offshore wind is an important part of America’s growing renewable energy portfolio. Amanda Lefton, new Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, joins host Brandon Burke to discuss the Biden Administration's focus on offshore wind, the recent release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Vineyard Wind project, and how BOEM is addressing permitting for floating offshore wind projects in federal waters. The episode also includes a "lightning round" of regional updates on offshore wind around the United States.  Credits:  Content, audio engineering, editing, and sound design by Brandon Burke.   Music by Brandon Burke with contributions from Nathan Ezzo, Steven Reilly, and Miles Taylor.

We talk to Tom Kilpatrick, Oceanographer at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, about the competitiveness of tenure track faculty positions, the challenges of being a student athlete while studying engineering and applied mathematics, and how a love for surfing inspired him to learn more about the ocean. See also Deep Learning with Python by François Chollet and Tom's personal website. Episode transcript Hosted by Rex Horner and Kelly SavoieProduced by Brandon M. CroseEdited by Peter TrepkeTheme music composed and performed by Steve Savoie Visit AMS Career Resources on the web! Contact us at skypodcast@ametsoc.org with any feedback or if you'd like to become a future guest.Copyright © 2021 American Meteorological Society.

Today on The Leaders' Brief - The last two days saw social media explode with posts on the ongoing farmers protests in India. The sensitivity of the demonstration that has been disturbing India's political landscape for over three months came to light as the Indian External Affairs Ministry issued a statement against a tweet by Grammy winning American pop star Rihanna. After having clarified that the reformist legislations were passed after a full debate and discussion at the Indian Parliament, India's External Affairs Ministry said in its statement that government has offered to keep the laws on hold in respect of the sentiment of protestors, who according to the Indian government is made up of “a very small section of farmers.”  Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni whose decision to shut down communication channels in the country after his presidential win last month had invited global criticism, has now ordered his finance minister to shut down the Democratic Governance Facility, a $100 million fund backed by European nations. Museveni, one of the longest serving heads of states had sought an explanation from the country's finance minister Matia Kasaija on how and why Permanent Secretary Keith Muhakanizi authorized DGF operations without the involvement of cabinet.  The USA's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced last Wednesday that it is restarting an environmental review of the Vineyard Wind project, the first major U.S offshore wind farm. The bureau's director Amanda Lefton said in the statement “BOEM is committed to conducting a robust and timely review of the proposed project”. The project if cleared, would be an important step towards the Biden administration's goal of doubling renewable energy production at sea by 2030. About egomonk: Website | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedInegomonk is a global intelligence platform delivering asymmetric outcomes by bringing organizations closer to the communities they want to serve and the leaders they wish to influence. If you wish to collaborate with us then email us at contact@egomonk.com.

Welcome back and Happy New Year, Solar Warrior! If you’re in the solar or energy storage industry, then today’s guest will be no stranger to you. I hope I do justice to making this useful and interesting, as she’s shared most of her thoughts and plans with us in a variety of forums. Abigail Ross Hopper became the first female President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in January 2017 just as the Obama-era solar boom was being handed off to the Trump administration. Abby has been dubbed the most important woman in solar by the media, and it’s true she carries an immensely important role. Before joining SEIA, Abby was the Director of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, where she led the agency that oversaw the leasing and development of all offshore energy, from oil and natural gas to offshore wind. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 330 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Welcome back and Happy New Year, Solar Warrior! If you’re in the solar or energy storage industry, then today’s guest will be no stranger to you. I hope I do justice to making this useful and interesting, as she’s shared most of her thoughts and plans with us in a variety of forums. Abigail Ross Hopper became the first female President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in January 2017 just as the Obama-era solar boom was being handed off to the Trump administration. Abby has been dubbed the most important woman in solar by the media, and it’s true she carries an immensely important role. Before joining SEIA, Abby was the Director of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, where she led the agency that oversaw the leasing and development of all offshore energy, from oil and natural gas to offshore wind. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 330 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

U.S. waters off the Atlantic coast are shaping up as a bonanza for offshore wind power, with the federal government having approved 15 tracks of water for development and investment flowing in from overseas. But some say projects may be facing a crosswind as the U.S. government takes a closer look at their impact. In this edition of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless talks with Jeff Grybowski, until recently the co-CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and previously the CEO of Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island-based company that completed the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., a five-turbine project off Block Island in 2016. Jeff joined Ørsted when the Danish company, a global leader in offshore wind energy, bought Deepwater Wind last year. Jeff shepherded the Block Island project to completion, drawing on his experience not only in business and law but also as a former state policymaker in Rhode Island. Alex Kuffner, a reporter for the Providence Journal, wrote that Jeff, “by proving that an offshore wind farm could be built in the United States, is arguably more responsible than anyone for ushering in the current rush of development.” Likewise, Thomas Brostrom, the CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind, told the Journal that Jeff is “one of the pioneers of the offshore wind industry in the U.S.” Bill and Jeff last met two years ago, when the Block Island turbines had been spinning energy for less than a year. Here, they get together again at Jeff's North Kingston, R.I., home to catch up on this emerging industry, the proliferation of projects and the outlook its expansion in the U.S.  They also discuss a controversial decision by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to take more time to examine the impact of a project called Vineyard Wind, an 84-turbine project planned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables that would be the first large-scale wind farm in the U.S. That government inquiry has implications not only for Vineyard Wind but also projects planned by Ørsted and other developers off the Atlantic coast. They touch, too, on the significance of state policies for offshore wind energy as well as federal policies, like a soon-to-expire investment tax credit.

Recently, a public demonstration took place outside of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s regional office in remembrance of the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill and to bring attention to the plans to drastically expand offshore drilling operations. Even with petroleum at the forefront of residents' minds, many are still not aware of historical implications and detriments from resource mining in the Goleta Community. KCSB’s Megan Stafford has more on petroleum’s past, right here at UCSB.

Solar energy has enjoyed extraordinary growth in recent years, thanks largely to declining costs and commercial investments, but public policy has played a big role, too. So, what lies in store for solar in 2019, amid increasingly ominous reports about climate change and ongoing debates over the role of federal and state policies? In this edition of the Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless talks to Abigail Ross Hopper, the president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the U.S. trade group for solar energy. Abby joined SEIA in 2017 after having run the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management at U.S. Department of the Interior during the Obama administration. Before that, she served as director of the Maryland Energy Administration, energy adviser to then Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and deputy general counsel with the Maryland Public Service Commission. As such she’s learned firsthand how policy is made at the state and federal levels, and now represents the US solar industry. Bill and Abby sat down at her office in Washington to discuss the condition of solar energy in the U-S today, the prospects for federal and state policies governing this sector, and the opportunities and challenges for leaders in this field like Abby.

Our guests this episode are Walter Cruickshank and Jim Bennett, the Acting Director and the Program Manager for Offshore Renewables, respectively, at BOEM – the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is the agency responsible for all energy leases in federal waters. Last week BOEM held an online auction for three wind energy areas south of Massachusetts. The auction was scheduled for one day but because there were so many rounds of bidding, BOEM had to extend the bidding into a second day. Not only that, the winning bid amounts blew away all of BOEM’s previous offshore wind leases. So naturally we begin the conversation by discussing the auction results – why they are so impressive, what the details are and what’s next for the winning bidders. Walter and Jim discuss how the industry has changed in just these past three years since these same lease areas were first offered at auction with no bidders, and then expand the conversation to talk about some of BOEM’s other offshore wind activity around the country, and what milestones they anticipate in the coming months and years. We look ahead to next year’s IPF at which BOEM always has a strong presence, and we close with Walter and Jim each reflecting on the state of the US offshore wind industry today and what it means for them personally having been involved in it from the very beginning. Recorded December 17, 2018. Published December 18, 2018.

After a decade of false starts, the U.S. offshore wind industry is poised for real growth. The Chief of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s renewables office takes a look at offshore wind’s future. --- After years of high hopes but little development, the U.S. offshore wind industry finally seems poised for growth following a series of major offshore project announcements this year. In May and June, the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut selected a combined 1,400 MW of offshore wind projects for contract negotiation. When complete, they’ll generate enough electricity to power 200,000 homes and help the states meet their clean energy and climate goals. The projects are all the more noteworthy given that there is currently just a single, small offshore wind farm operating in U.S. waters. Guest Jim Bennett heads the Office of Renewable Energy Programs at the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and is the individual charged with overseeing the federal government’s involvement in developing the United States’ offshore renewable energy resources. Bennett offers his insights into what’s driving recent investment in US offshore wind energy, the challenges to offshore wind development, and the potential for the offshore industry to become a vital, economically competitive source of clean electricity. Also featured is Brandon Burke, Brandon Burke, an attorney, offshore wind researcher, and soon to be master’s graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. Related Content Tilting at Windmills https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/tilting-windmills New FERC Rule Grows Clean Energy’s Role in Grid Resilience https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/02/21/new-ferc-rule-grows-clean-energys-role-grid-resilience Clean Energy Costs Continue to Fall https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/01/22/clean-energy-costs-continue-fall

The Trump Administration has undertaken efforts to expand fossil fuel development on federal lands by lifting a moratorium on new coal leasing, scaling back certain protections on federal lands, and moving to open up new areas for offshore drilling. At the same time, the Administration is moving to alleviate regulatory burdens on industry operations, most recently by proposing to roll-back certain safety requirements and structural reforms put into place after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. What are the implications of the Trump Administration policies? On January 24, 2018, EPIC hosted a conversation with Tommy Beaudreau, former Chief of Staff at the Department of Interior and the first-ever Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The conversation was moderated by Mark Templeton, director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at UChicago Law School.

Agenda 8:00 a.m. Registration and Light Breakfast8:30 a.m. Opening Remarks Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Co-Chair, Senate Arctic Caucus Senator Angus King (I-ME), Co-Chair, Senate Arctic Caucus 9:00 a.m. Panel Discussion: Economic, Commercial, and Infrastructure Initiatives in the American Arctic Dr. Walter Cruickshank, Acting Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, U.S. Department of the Interior Stephen M. Carmel, Senior Vice President, Maritime Services, Maersk Line, Limited (MLL) Tara Sweeney, Former Chair, Arctic Economic Council; Executive Vice President, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Dana Eidsness, Director, Maine North Atlantic Development Office (MENADO), Maine International Trade Center Moderated by: Heather A. Conley, Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic; Director, Stuart Center, CSIS 10:30 a.m. Event Concludes Does significant physical change in the Arctic, represented by receding glaciers, rapidly changing ecosystems, and diminishing sea ice, translate into significantly new economic opportunities? Are Arctic economics hype or real? How is the United States preparing for a more commercially accessible and potentially economically viable Arctic? Our keynote speakers and subsequent panel will discuss the opportunities and limitations confronting economic, commercial, and infrastructure initiatives in this resource-rich and heightened risk environment.This conversation is made possible by support from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This is the fifth and final episode recorded at last week’s 2017 International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum, or IPF, in Annapolis, Maryland. This session is called “BOEM’s Path Forward.” It builds on the previous day’s remarks from Dr. Walter Cruickshank, Acting Director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM. You can hear those remarks in episode 8 of More Power To You. This episode gets into a lot more detail about BOEM’s activities and its approach for supporting the anticipated growth in offshore wind in the near future.  The session is moderated by Ross Tyler, Strategy and Development Advisor for the Business Network for Offshore Wind. The panelists are three senior BOEM leaders: Jim Bennett is BOEM’s Renewable Energy Program Manager and also supervises BOEM’s offshore wind leasing activity in the Atlantic Joan Barminski is BOEM’s Regional Director for the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Mike Celata is BOEM’s Regional Director for the Gulf of Mexico Recorded April 21, 2017 Published April 28, 2017

In this special episode of More Power To You, we bring you the opening session from Day 2 of the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum (IPF) in Annapolis, Maryland. Walter Cruickshank, Acting Director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management presents an overview of BOEM's activities and future outlook for offshore wind. Recorded April 20, 2017 Published April 24, 2017

In this Episode Yann and Bryan cover a wide range of important topics for the solar and cleantech industry. Yann interviews Abby Hopper, the new SEIA CEO and President, who joins the solar industry after leading the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. We cover her vision for SEIA, how to get new members to join and if she sees SEIA working with EEI, the utility’s lobbying group. Bryan and Yann go into the nominating hearings of Scott Pruitt, and why the environmental groups are trying to make him the target, why the nominees are normalizing Rex Tillerson, a man that is synonymous with Exxon, and Rick Perry’s continuing ability to make soundbites for SNL. At the State level, Bryan covers what is actually happening in Nevada with NV Energy’s latest filing and if it really matters. Yann argues that the solar industry may be getting too soft when it comes to playing politics. Listen to the Episode and subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud or Stitcher.

On this week's Capitol Crude, Platts senior editors Brian Scheid and Herman Wanglook at the growing opposition to oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Abigail Ross Hopper, director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, says in an interview that the Obama administration is...

While winning bids at the 2015 US Central Lease Sale 235 were down from 2014, prices per acre for the ability to potentially produce oil offshore were among the highest of the last 20 years. Starr Spencer, senior editor for oil news, evaluates how the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's annual...

In the summer of 2014, President Obama gave the green light for oil and gas exploration off the Atlantic coast—a complete reversal in Obama’s 2008 campaign platform. Today, nine applications for seismic airgun testing are under consideration at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Seismic testing—sometimes known more graphically as “seismic airgun blasting”—is a technology that maps oil and gas deposits in the ocean. The process involves sonic bursts in 10 second intervals that continue for days, weeks, and sometimes months. The “bursts” are 100,000 times more intense than a jet engine. The consequences of seismic testing have manifested in locations across the world: drastically reduced fishery numbers; marine animal deaths, behavioral disruptions, and breeding interruptions; and job elimination. In St. Augustine, Florida, the Matanzas Riverkeeper and Oceana are two organizations opposed to the proposed seismic testing. Joined by coalition members like the Florida Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club and Surfrider, they’re calling on Florida’s elected officials to take a stance on this potentially devastating sonic blasting. Visit www.watershedradio.com for more.

On May 23rd the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held a two hour virtual meeting of the Maine Ocean Energy Task Force to discuss next steps for reviewing energy giant Statoil's plan to deploy four deepwater wind turbines 12+ miles off Brunswick, Maine. The meeting was followed at 3pm by this 25 minute public conference call in which BOEM officialo Aditi Mirani led a question and answer session about the meeting and about where the Statoil plan presently stands