September 13, 2024 โ The American Petroleum Institute, the largest oil trade group in the United States, has joined forces with several other top energy industry organizations to protest a court order they claim threatens oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
API, EnerGeo Alliance, the National Ocean Industries Association, and Chevron USA said the order puts โcurrent and future U.S. energy supplyโ at risk in an appeal filed Wednesday evening.
June 9, 2021 โ President Joe Bidenโs administration wants to know whether offshore wind companies want to move into the Gulf of Mexico.
The agency that oversees offshore leases will publish a request for interest Friday in the Federal Register, for areas off Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, the Interior Department said Tuesday.
Those areas are largely in shallower waters where many wells have played out rather than the deep seas where the Gulfโs offshore oil and gas industry is now focused.
Biden has said he wants enough wind-generated electricity for more than 10 million homes nationwide by 2030.
Offshore wind development has the potential to create tens of thousands of good-paying, union jobs across the nation, said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Her agencyโs request for interest from developers โis an important first step to see what role the Gulf may play in this exciting frontier,โ she said.
โThe Gulf of Mexico is extremely well-positioned for the exploration of new offshore technologies and energy opportunities,โ said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which includes companies building both wind and oil and gas facilities offshore.
December 14, 2018 โ Companies competed Thursday for the opportunity to install wind turbines in Atlantic waters off Massachusetts in an auction that shattered records even as it headed toward a second day of frenzied bidding.
After 24 rounds of sealed bidding, companies had already pledged $285 million toward the three offshore wind leases that are up for grabs โ more than six times the previous high-water mark: Norwegian energy company Equinor ASAโs $42.47 million bid in 2016 for the rights to build an offshore wind farm near New York.
High bids in the offshore wind auction, set to resume Friday, also already eclipsed the $178 million the U.S. government collected in its August sale of offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico.
By Thursday evening, when Interior Department officials called an overnight halt to the auction, four companies were still vying for the territory, drawn by growing demand for renewable power in the Northeast U.S. and a chance at gaining a foothold in the nationโs growing offshore wind market.
โThe unprecedented interest in todayโs sale demonstrates that not only has offshore wind arrived in the U.S., but it is set to soar,โ said Randall Luthi, head of the National Ocean Industries Association.
Active Bidders
Some 19 companies were deemed qualified by the Interior Department to participate in the auction โ higher than in any of the previous seven competitive sales of wind leases in U.S. waters. The prospective bidders included units of established offshore wind developers and renewable power companies that have primarily focused on land as well as oil companies such as Equinor and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Eleven companies were actively bidding at the start of Thursdayโs sale, nearly twice the most-recent record, in 2016, when six developers competed for the New York offering. The Interior Departmentโs Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is conducting the sale, will name participants after the auction ends, expected sometime Friday.
Read the full story at Bloomberg
June 27, 2018 โ The budding Atlantic offshore wind industry needs a skilled workforce in the Northeast and a consistent federal approach to permitting and regulation, experts told members of Congress Tuesday.
The Northeast region alone aims to generate 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, said Stephen Pike, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, who called it โa once in a lifetime opportunity to establish a new industry in the United States.โ
The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources was hearing testimony on legislation that would create a federally funded wind career training grant program, and to extend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act so the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management can offer wind energy leases off U.S. territories.
โGuam is a logical place to start looking,โ Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, told Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, sponsor of the extension measure. Bordallo said offshore wind makes sense for the Pacific island where power is generated with expensive imported petroleum, and Luthi said several developers have expressed interest.
โWe would be more than happy to work with the territories,โ said James Bennett, who heads BOEMโs renewable energy program. As it has with states, the agency would start by creating task forces to identify potential lease areas and determine what kinds of studies are needed, he said.
June 22, 2018 โ In another strike at his predecessorโs legacy, and one that could have long-term consequences for New England, President Trump this week rescinded an executive order by President Obama that established the first national ocean policy, which made protecting coastal waters and the Great Lakes a priority.
Trump said his executive order would cut bureaucracy and benefit business, while environmental advocates denounced his decision, saying it strongly favors commercial interests over conservation.
Trumpโs order could alter New Englandโs plans to protect the Gulf of Maine and other waters in the region. It replaces the National Ocean Council, which brought together a host of federal departments and committees that work on ocean issues, with a new โstreamlinedโ committee that will focus on science and technology and resource management.
It will also eliminate nine regional planning bodies around the country, which the White House called โunnecessary.โ
โClaims that the ocean is being abandoned are not supported by the facts,โ said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney at the Fisheries Survival Fund in Washington, D.C., which represents the scallops industry.
He supported the elimination of the regional planning bodies, which he argued had failed in its mission to bring together competing interests, such as offshore wind-farm developers and fishermen, who have been at odds over plans to build turbines off Marthaโs Vineyard.
Eliminating the groups โwill not lead to less coordination amongst the federal government because they were not doing their stated job,โ he said.
Officials at the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore drilling and wind companies, praised Trumpโs order, saying Obamaโs policies were โuber-bureaucraticโ and โcaused consternation, uncertainty, and concern for the offshore energy industry.โ
February 7, 2018 โ Atlantic coast states might be protesting President Trumpโs plan to expand offshore oil drilling, but theyโre increasingly embracing a different kind of seaborne energy: wind.
States bordering the outer continental shelf are looking for carbon-free electricity, even as the Trump administration rolls back rules requiring it.
Last week, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced that his state will aim for 3,500 megawatts of installed offshore wind by 2030, enough to power 1 million homes. Massachusetts has a goal to build 1,600 MW of offshore wind power by 2027, and New York has committed to 2,400 MW by 2030.
At the same time, wind technology is quickly advancing, thanks to its popularity in Europe. Ten countries across Europe had deployed 12,600 MW of offshore wind power by the end of 2016. In the United States, the Interior Departmentโs Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued 13 wind energy leases off the Atlantic coast. In late 2016, the first offshore wind farm in the United States came online about 4 miles off the coast of Block Island, R.I.
Itโs unclear how the growth in offshore wind might be affected by Trumpโs plan to open nearly all U.S. waters to oil and gas drilling.
But there are hints that the two types of development could come into contact on the open water.
According to BOEMโs draft proposed 2019-24 offshore oil and gas leasing plan, any drilling off the Atlantic Seaboard would have to be โcoordinatedโ with current and future offshore wind development. The agency predicts that more wind projects are likely to be built between 2019 and 2024, when oil and gas lease sales are slated to be held.
Experts said itโs unlikely there would be direct competition for the same slice of ocean between the two industries. But thatโs a hard question to answer.
Kevin Book, managing director of research for ClearView Energy Partners LLC, said itโs too early to know how offshore wind and oil and gas development might interact off the East Coast. Historically, offshore wind has been a nascent industry, and no one has drilled for oil in the Atlantic for decades. Itโs been so long that developers have little idea what type of oil reserves lie under the sea, or if oil companies will want to tap them.
Read the full story from Scientific American/E&E news at IEEFA
January 12, 2018 โ WASHINGTON โ Twenty-two Democratic U.S. senators from 12 states on Thursday joined the chorus of local representatives seeking exemptions from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkeโs newly proposed offshore drilling plan, after his surprise move on Tuesday to shield Florida.
Zinke surprised lawmakers, governors, and industry groups on Tuesday night by announcing that Florida would be removed from the Interior Departmentโs proposal to open up over 90 percent of federal waters to oil and gas leasing.
Zinke had met in Tallahasee, Floridaโs capital, with Republican Governor Rick Scott, who told the Interior chief that drilling puts his stateโs coastal tourism economy at risk. Scott is widely expected to challenge Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, who is up for re-election this year.
The White House dismissed suggestions that Floridaโs exemption was a political favor to Scott. โI am not aware of any political favor that that would have been part of,โ spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.
โJust like Florida, our states are unique with vibrant coastal economies,โ wrote the 22 senators, who include Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California. โProviding all of our states with the same exemption from dangerous offshore oil and gas drilling would ensure that vital industries from tourism to recreation to fishing are not needlessly placed in harmโs way,โ they wrote.
Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Zinke intends to meet with every coastal governor affected by the agencyโs proposed offshore drilling plan, a process that could take a year.
Democrats are not alone in pressuring Zinke to exempt their states from drilling. South Carolinaโs Republican Governor Henry McMaster asked Zinke for an exemption, citing the value of his stateโs coastal tourist economy.
Read the full story at Reuters
Notifications