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| Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
Friday, March 27, 2015
PIETA at iba pa para sa MAHAL NA ARAW
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
Let’s Toast China’s President, California’s Savior
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Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S.
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S.
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| President Obama with members of his cabinet speaking to the Democratic Governors Association. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s remaining economic agenda. Jabin Botsford/The New York Times |
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Legal action hopes to make Shell port-less in Seattle
Legal action hopes to make Shell port-less in Seattle
Article by Kevin McGwin published 26 March 2015 by The Arctic Journal under the headline:
What the Shell is going on? Legal action hopes to make Shell port-less in Seattle
On March 22, The Guardian, a British media outlet popular among the left-of-centre, announced that Shell’s approval to resume its Alaska drilling programme this summer appeared imminent.
Nothing is certain, but the assumption is that Sally Jewell, the US interior secretary, will indeed affirm a recommendation by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a regulator, that the 2008 sale of drilling licences to Shell and several other firms be permitted to stand.
The BOEM, which falls under Ms Jewell’s jurisdiction, had been ordered by a court last year to review the $2.6 billion sale of eight licence areas after conservation groups challenged the federal environmental impact assessment that cleared the way for the deal.
SEE RELATED: Offshore oil: Not in my lifetime
The BOEM issued its recommendation on February 12, starting a 30-day waiting period during which Ms Jewell was to decide how to proceed. She can accept or reject the decision, or ask to have it modified. The period ended on March 25, and an announcement should be made any day now.
Despite the expectation that she will abide by the BOEM’s recommendation, Ms Jewell, a former executive with REI, a Seattle-based retailer of high-end outdoor kit, has appeared to ride the fence, noting in statements that Alaska has “substantial oil and gas potential” yet at the same time pointing to its “sensitive marine and coastal resources”.
Environmental groups say that it is the latter – and an official calculation that there is a 75% likelihood that the Alaska offshore drilling could lead to a major spill (over 1,000 barrels) in the 77 years the fields could be expected to be active – that she should be most concerned about.
Ms Jewell, however, has described the BOEM’s review positively, saying it struck a balance between all concerns, fuelling expectations that she will allow the sale to stand.
SEE RELATED: A clear and presidential opportunity
Should it indeed come to pass that she gives Shell the go-ahead, it would pave the way for the firm to resume drilling activities in the Chukchi Sea, which have lain dormant since 2012, mostly due to outside legal challenges. Federal regulators note that, with the exception of the dramatic grounding of the Kulluk, a drill ship used by Shell, at the end of the 2012 season, the firm’s reputation in Alaska is exceptional.
Shell would still need to pass several other hurdles before it could legally resume its activities. It must also have its rigs in place in time for the drilling season to begin, probably in July. In order to make sure that happens, it has already begun shipping two rigs across the Pacific Ocean. Their likely destination is Seattle, which recently signed a deal to lease port facilities to Foss Marine, a firm Shell has contracted to service its rigs.
They should be there by April. By that time, Ms Jewell will certainly have issued her decision, but the fracas over Shell’s use of the Seattle’s port will still be in full swing.
This week, the city council, which has already voiced its concern about being associated with Arctic oil drilling, sent a letter to Ms Jewell, as a fellow Seattlite, not to reinstate Shell’s lease. Their effort is unlikely to sway her decision, but it plays well among city voters.
SEE RELATED: Capricious no longer
One thing is getting a cool welcome from the city, more problematic for Shell, though, could be a decision by a state judge last week agreeing tohear a case challenging that port authorities failed to abide by state regulations requiring that an environmental assessment be carried out.
The group, a mix of five national and local organisations, argue that the facility is approved for cargo handling. Fixing drilling equipment, does not fall under that definition, they say. They are now hoping the judge will issue a decision before the rigs arrive.
If the decision is in the environmentalist’s favour, they will be credited with causing the storm that denied Shell any port.
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
Corrib Gas still set to flow this year, says Shell spokesperson
Corrib Gas still set to flow this year, says Shell spokesperson
Shell E&P Ireland says it is still on schedule to have gas flowing from the Corrib Gas Field within the next six months.
An 800 metre section of a water discharge pipe, which will carry treated surface water from the terminal at Bellanaboy in north Mayo 12 kilometres out to sea once the plant is opertional, had come loose from the seabed and was floating on the surface of Broadhaven Bay two weeks ago.
However, the problem has not had any impact on the target date to have gas flowing by the middle of this year.
A spokesperson for Shell E&P Ireland said the ducting has now been temporarily repositioned on the seabed and remediation work is ongoing to find a more permanent solution within the next few weeks.
“It is a plastic ducting pipe, 10 inches in diameter, and has no impact at all on the gas pipeline,” said the spokesperson.
“We don’t expect this to have an impact in terms of first gas,” he added.
The Corrib gas project has been one of the most controversial infrastructural developments in the history of the Irish state.
The project, which involves an 83 kilometre off shore gas pipeline and an eight kilometre onshore pipeline, became bogged down in community opposition 10 years ago when a number of local people refused to allow Shell to carry out work on their lands along the then permitted pipeline route.
While much of the local community opposition to the project has subsided, getting the gas flowing will not bring to an end entirely to the opposition and scrutiny the project has faced, according to a spokesperson for the group Shell to Sea.
Terence Conway said Shell to Sea will continue to oppose Shell’s presence in north Mayo, even after gas starts flowing.
“We are commited to keeping our campaign going,” he said on Wednesday. “We intend to hold the state to account for their shortcomings on what has happened here.”
He says the group are now concentrating on trying to bring about a European enquiry into the Corrib gas saga.
The Corrib Gas Field was discovered in 1996 and the Corrib project partners are Shell E&P Ireland Ltd., Statoil Exploration and Vermillion Energy.
The field is located 83 kilometres off the north Mayo coast.
At peak production, the gas field is expected to meet 60 per cent of Ireland’s gas needs and provide an energy supply for up to 20 years.
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
Shell conducts drills with Arctic oil spill response system
Shell conducts drills with Arctic oil spill response system
From an article by Jennifer A. Dlouhy published 26 March 2015 by fuelfix.com
Shell conducts drills with Arctic oil spill response system
WASHINGTON — Shell’s Arctic oil spill response system is undergoing drills in waters near Bellingham, Washington, with government officials observing the exercises.
Shell Oil Co. is conducting the testing as it plans a new round of exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska later this year.
Shell’s last venture, in 2012, was cut short when the emergency containment system was damaged during a deployment test — preventing the equipment from making it to the Arctic in time to safeguard drilling into oil- and gas-bearing zones more than 1,000 feet below the sea floor.
The system, carried and deployed from the Arctic Challenger barge, was later repaired and certified.
But while new certifications are not needed for Shell’s proposed 2015 drilling, the exercises — set to begin in earnest Friday morning and span several days — are designed to put the equipment through its paces for regulators who will decide whether the company wins other critical government approvals.
“Although the Arctic Challenger was certified by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and U.S. Coast Guard in late 2012, we volunteered to demonstrate its capabilities to regulators in advance of 2015 drilling,” said Curtis Smith, a Shell spokesman.
Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director Brian Salerno and Assistant Interior Secretary Janice Schneider are among the officials set to watch as the containment system is deployed, at Shell’s invitation.
U.S. Coast Guard inspectors also are on the scene “to witness the readiness of the crew, confirm the seaworthiness of the vessel and ensure compliance to U.S. and international laws, regulations and standards,” said a safety bureau spokesman.
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