The Department of the Interior is holding the only East Coast public meeting and hearing on plans for offshore drilling Monday in daylong sessions at the Atlantic City Convention Center, and interest groups are mobilizing their members to show up and speak up.
Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar will present findings from the newest federal Minerals Management Service on the status of energy sources on the continental shelf, including wind and tidal generation and oil and natural gas exploration. New Jersey ocean environment groups and held their own event in Atlantic City Wednesday to call attention to the Monday meeting and urge the public to turn out.
Findings from the public meetings could shape a final decision by the Obama administration on whether to grant five-year leases on the outer continental shelf to energy companies.
There was bi-partisan representation at the Wednesday event:
"We don't want oil rigs along the coast and we can't accept the risk of oil spills in the ocean tides or on our beaches," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., who was there with Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J. and Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both D?N.J.
A 5-Year Program consists of a schedule of oil and gas lease sales indicating the size, timing and location of proposed leasing activity the Secretary determines will best meet national energy needs for the five year period following its approval. An area must be included in the current 5-Year Program in order to be offered for leasing. Section 18 (132.38 KB PDF) of the OCS Lands Act (286.05 KB PDF) prescribes the major steps (17.68 KB PDF) involved in developing a 5-Year Program including extensive public comment steps. A 5-Year Program balances energy needs and environmental considerations.
At a recent meeting, Salazar said the report on Outer Continental Shelf energy resources found huge information gaps about the location and extent of offshore oil and gas resources.
"Along the Atlantic Coast, for example, the seismic data we have is twenty-five years old," he said. "How should we gather the information we currently lack about our offshore oil and gas resources? How do we manage the costs of gathering seismic data? Are there areas on the OCS that should be of priority for information collection?"
Can you guess from those questions how the Obama Administration hopes to frame the "discussion" that proceeds from the meeting in Atlantic City and other cities?
I'm not sure but, if I were an executive at ExxonMobil, I think I'd be a bit concerned.
If you think George W. Bush is a painful public speaker, then take a gander at Chris Myers talking about energy policy - but take your pepto first:
Okay, it's easy to make fun of someone stumbling over their words. But I've always said I wouldn't mind Bush so much if his only problem was public speaking. So I made a transcript of Myers' energy policy speech (included at the end) and decided to take a look at it. Spoiler Alert: I think his plan is a bit weak, but it's better than "We have to make it look like we're winning."
The first part is a fumbling screed against John Adler and tells us how great Chris Myers is. I'll disect that another time. The focus here is energy policy, and I'll delve into that after the jump. All thirteen points.
Harsh, you say? Well, it's hard to argue with the facts.
In a recent campaign press release covered by PoliticsNJ's Matt Friedman and referenced earlier by our own SJBrian, likely future US Senate candidate, actual current State Senate candidate, and professional Dentist Joe Pennacchio of Montville attacked Senator Frank Lautenberg for... standing up to terrorists.
Right now, Senators Lautenberg and Menendez are standing united with New York Senators Clinton and Schumer to block the nomination of Gene Cretz as ambassador to Libya. Their objection is that Libya, a state sponsor of terrorism, has never truly paid for its crimes.
The Senate Democrats, led by Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, said no U.S. ambassador should set foot in Tripoli until Libya fulfilled the financial commitments made to the victims' families.
...
"Libya must no longer be allowed to drag its feet and the U.S. must not pursue fully normalized diplomatic relations with Libya until they fulfill their legal obligations to American families," Lautenberg said in a statement.
Joe Pennacchio, however, is apparently of the mindset that we ought to open normalize relations with Libya to "reward responsible behavior." Dictator Qaddafi's 'responsible behavior,' in Pennacchio's mind, includes having "admitted a role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103," according to his statement. To Pennacchio, it seems mass murder is okay as long as you at least 'fess up to it. Meanwhile, other reputable international organizations characterize Libya as a nation that engages in the vicious torture, murder, and unlawful detention of both journalists and dissidents.
But what's really insane to me is that Pennacchio, as I mentioned earlier, is a resident of Montville. For years, one of the most outspoken advocates of justice for Libya has been Montville resident Kathleen Flynn, who lost her son John Patrick Flynn in Libya's bombing of Pan Am 103. When the Bush adminstration announced that they would be opening diplomatic relations with the Qaddafi regime in Libya, she told USA Today that "the moral compass of this administration is so off-kilter."
So if Pennacchio isn't speaking for his constituents in championing the cause of 'rewarding' Libya, then who is he speaking for?
As indicated in the headline, this is where Dick Cheney comes into the picture. As the CEO of Halliburton in the nineties, Cheney was one of the leading voices in the push to restore diplomatic ties with Libya. The motive, of course, was profit. The Washington Post has an excellent history of the company's relationship to Libya at their website.
Halliburton came under fire in the early '90s for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drilling equipment which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton Logging Services, a former subsidiary, was charged with shipping six pulse neutron generators through Italy to Libya. In 1995, the company pled guilty to criminal charges that it violated the U.S. ban on exports to Libya. Halliburton was fined $1.2 million and will pay $2.61 million in civil penalties.
. . .
During his chairmanship of Halliburton, Cheney criticized U.S. sanctions against "rogue" nations such as Iran and Libya in a 1998 speech. According to a July 26, 2000, Washington Post story, Cheney complained the sanctions "are nearly always motivated by domestic political pressure, the need for Congress to appeal to some domestic constituency."
Unsurprisingly, in April of 2001, just three months after taking office, The Washington Post reported that Cheney's energy task force recommended that sanctions against Libya and other rogue states be restructured as they impacted "some of the most important existing and prospective petroleum producing countries in the world."
Joe Pennacchio's position is clear. When it comes to chosing sides, it's Dick Cheney and Big Oil over his own constituents fighting to bring a terrorist state to justice.
In my first official post as a Menendez for Senate staffer, I'm really excited to announce the launch of StandUpToBigOil.com. As many of you have probably heard by now, Senator Menendez is fighting back against Big Oil and their allies in the Republican Congress. The Menendez plan will force Big Oil to foot the bill for a 60-day suspension of the federal gas tax to ease the burden of outrageous prices at the pump. Senator Reid and the DSCC have been touting the Menendez plan for a few weeks now, and it really seems to be gaining traction.
Here's the proposal, in a nutshell. As both retail gas prices trend upward with no relief in site, the federal gas tax -- currently $0.184 per gallon -- would be suspended for 60 days, ideally during the traditionally high-priced summer driving months. This tax holiday would be revenue neutral, however, as it's paid for by a repeal of the tax breaks and corporate welfare Republicans have made sure to protect for their cronies in Big Oil. Even though word of the Menendez proposal has made its way around the netroots, this is an important point that's been too often overlooked. Senator Menendez is going to stand up to Big Oil and make them pay for real relief at the pump.
Earlier today at MyDD, I posted my thoughts on the new documentary about Al Gore's personal campaign to stem the tide of global warming, 'An Inconvenient Truth.' Part of the review relays the story of my personal response to the trailer for the film just last week. It moved me so much, I immediately signed up for New Jersey's Clean Power Choice Program. Here's what I wrote:
Here in New Jersey, we have a program called NJ Clean Power Choice. It's really simple. For a nominal additional charge tacked on to the existing rate, energy consumers get to choose between four different suppliers of alternative energy. Three of these will purchase all of the energy you consume with a portfolio of more environmentally responsible choices, like wind, solar, hydroelectric, and even landfill gas. One of them will replace 15% of your power consumption with local wind power from the coastal Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm. Personally, I saw the trailer for the documentary, remembered that I'd been putting off enrolling in the Clean Power Choice program since last fall, went to the website and signed up to have 100% of our electricity provided by alternative sources.
This is a program I've actually brought up to some of the other writers here at Blue Jersey, wondering how many had already signed up. To my surprise, I was among the last to have taken the step. So my initial thoughts about posting about the program here at Blue Jersey went out the window. I figured progressives here were already well aware of the program and didn't need me pestering them.
As it turned out, two Jersey-based commenters at MyDD had no idea that Clean Power Choice existed, and both signed up after reading my post. So here I am. If you don't know about NJ Clean Power Choice, think about looking into it. And if you are aware of it, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and feelings. New Jersey is the first state in the nation to demand that the utilities offer all of its consumers a choice in how their energy is generated. This is a perfect example of why it's so important that we are, in fact, Blue Jersey.
An interview with Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey will be available as a podcast at Bluejersey.net on Monday, January 30. Subscribe to the podcast now and listen to a fascinating discussion that goes to the heart of issues of the day.
Congressman Rush Holt on the war in Iraq and Homeland Security: "I have found no one who actually feels safer, and can demonstrate that she or he is safer, because of our war in Iraq."
On warrantless domestic surveillance: "I see no justification for the program that the White House has described. I see no reason to have an ongoing spying mechanism against Americans...now you have some functionary in the NSA, or worse, some political appointee in the White House, deciding whose phone is going to be tapped, whose email is going to be bugged, whose life is going to be invaded."
On presidential overreach and whether Congress should have limited White House power when authorizing the Iraq fiasco: "The majority leadership certainly dropped the ball on this."
On the question of "Where are the Democrats?": "I think there are many Democrats who are standing up and fighting...Jim McDermott, Louise Slaughter, there are a number of us who are standing up, who are speaking out. But remember, we are in the minority."
Congressman Holt is refreshingly honest, something his constituents have learned to expect from the transplanted West Virginian and former assistant director of the Plasma Research Laboratory at Princeton University. He doesn't speak in sound-bites, but tells the whole story with exceptional clarity.
