Trump selects Burgum as Interior Secretary
Donald Trump, the president-elect, announced on Thursday that North Dakota governor Doug Burgum will be his choice for Interior Secretary. Burgum is a former wealthy software executive. Trump, dressed in a tuxedo, said that the Department of Interior would be headed by him. He added that an announcement would be made on Friday. Burgum has presented himself as a conservative businessman who is traditional. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president before quitting.
US Unveils $1.15 Billion for Abandoned Oil and Gas Well Clean-up
The Biden administration on Monday said it would make $1.15 billion available to states to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells as part of a broad effort to reduce U.S. climate warming emissions and improve health and safety in nearby communities.The money represents a portion of the $4.7 billion for well clean-up that was included in the infrastructure law passed in Congress last year. The program is a pillar of U.S.
Biden Administration Suspends Federal Oil and Gas Permitting
The Biden administration has temporarily suspended oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands and waters while it evaluates the legal and policy implications of the program, according to a Department of Interior memo.The move appears to be a first step in delivering on newly sworn-in President Joe Biden's campaign promise to ban all new federal drilling permits, part of his wider agenda…
Trump Administration Rushing to Sell Arctic Oil Leases
The Trump administration on Monday issued a request to energy companies to identify what specific land areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be offered for sale, according to a government document.The Department of Interior said the nominations and any comments on the land tracts must be received 30 days after the document is published in the Federal Register. The “call for nominations” is scheduled to be published on Tuesday…
US Proposal Would Allow Oil and Gas Drillers to Delay Royalty Payments
The U.S.
Vineyard Wind to Miss Startup Target Over Permit Delay
Vineyard Wind, the developer of the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, said on Tuesday it will miss its target to start sending power to Massachusetts by 2022 due to lengthy federal permitting delays.The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of Interior, posted a revised permitting timeline on its website on Tuesday that said it will issue a final decision on the project by Dec.
Drilling Ban Proposals Divide Democrats
In the southeast corner of New Mexico, new houses, hotels and jobs are sprouting like flowers in the desert. Trucks hauling equipment and laborers jam once-barren highways on the way to thousands of oil rigs.The Democrats who control the state's government have lofty plans for the billions of dollars in projected tax revenues from the drilling industry in the Permian Basin, the world’s biggest oil field, starting with an overhaul of New Mexico's ailing public education system.
Offshore Wind: a Freshening Breeze?
July brought news about offshore wind. There was something for everyone: optimism, disappointment, and construction, too.Finally, starting with Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project, a joint venture with Danish wind developer Orsted is underway. True, this is a small project – just two wind turbines to be installed 27 miles east of Virginia Beach. But considering all the preceding hurdles, news about Dominion blew in as proverbial, hopeful fresh air.
US Offshore Drilling Takes Center Stage
U.S. lawmakers will quiz President Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the Interior Department on Thursday, focusing on the former energy and mining lobbyist’s plans to expand fossil fuels production from the United States' public lands and waters.The Interior Department, which oversees more than a fifth of the U.S. land surface from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, has been central to Trump's policy of boosting domestic crude oil…
US Lease Sale a Test for Drilling Demand
The Trump administration will hold its fourth major auction for oil and gas leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, in a fresh test of demand from drillers that have lately been shying away from the region.The outcome of the lease sale will provide the last big signal from the industry about their interest in U.S. waters before President Donald Trump's Interior Department releases a long-awaited proposal to expand offshore drilling…
Shutdown Risks Delays to US Energy Initiatives
The partial government shutdown is increasing the chances of delays in U.S. energy initiatives from the release of President Donald Trump's proposed offshore drilling plan to allowing higher levels of ethanol in gasoline during summer months, energy industry groups said on Friday.The U.S. Department of Interior had been expected to release its highly anticipated 2019 to 2024 offshore oil and gas…
Several US States Likely Withheld from Offshore Drilling Plan
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has hinted to at least six coastal states that he will keep their waters out of a looming plan to expand U.S. offshore drilling, telling some they lack enough oil to be included anyway, according to state officials and transcripts from public hearings.Zinke's comments are the clearest indication to date that the Trump administration’s initial proposal to open nearly all U.S.
Trump Administration Seeks Swift Action on Alaska Oil Leases
The Trump administration is seeking to sell leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as quickly as possible – drawing fire from opponents of drilling in the sensitive area, who are warning against a rushed process. A top Department of Interior official who traveled to Alaska last week promised an imminent start to the leasing process, saying he wanted to wrap up environmental studies within a year, more quickly than such documents have been completed in the past.
US to Offer 48 Mln Acres in Next Gulf Lease Sale
The U.S. Department of Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will conduct a lease sale on Wednesday, March 22, 2017, offering 48 million acres in federal waters offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama for oil and gas exploration and development. Lease Sale 247, which includes all unleased and non-protected areas in the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area, will be livestreamed to the public via the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management website.
Obama Bans New Drilling off Alaska, Part of Atlantic Shore
U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, in a push to leave his stamp on the environment before Republican Donald Trump takes office next month. Obama used a 1950s-era law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling. Environmental groups said that meant Trump's incoming administration would have to go court if it sought to reverse the move.
Trump Advisors Aim to Free Indian Land Resources
Native American reservations cover just 2 percent of the United States, but they may contain about a fifth of the nation's oil and gas, along with vast coal reserves. Now, a group of advisors to President-elect Donald Trump on Native American issues wants to free those resources from what they call a suffocating federal bureaucracy that holds title to 56 million acres of tribal lands, two chairmen of the coalition told Reuters in exclusive interviews.
US to Make Major Energy Announcement on Arctic Outer Shelf
The U.S. Department of Interior said it plans to make a major announcement on Thursday about energy resources on the U.S. Arctic Outer Continental Shelf. Officials plan to discuss the latest announcement on a series of reforms related to the production of energy resources on public land in a press call at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT), the department said in a statement. (Reporting by Adam DeRose; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Obama to Issue New Offshore Drilling Rules
The Obama administration will announce Thursday safety regulations for offshore oil and natural gas drilling to prevent the kind of explosion that happened six years ago on a BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico, an official told Reuters. The Department of Interior will unveil the final version of its well control regulations, which will require more stringent design and operating procedures for well control equipment used in offshore oil and gas operations…
NOIA Urges DOI to Retain Proposed OCS Lease Sale
National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) president Randall Luthi voiced support for the Atlantic Offshore Energy Caucus’s call for Department of Interior (DOI) retention of proposed Atlantic lease sale. “I am pleased that the Congressional Atlantic Offshore Energy Caucus has reinforced their support for oil and gas exploration and production off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South…
TransCanada sues U.S. over Keystone Rejection
TransCanada Corp sued the U.S government on Wednesday to reverse President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, and also plans to seek $15 billion in damages from a trade tribunal. TranCanada's lawsuit in a federal court in Houston, Texas, called rejection of its permit to build the pipeline unconstitutional. The company's U.S. lawsuit does not seek monetary damages but wants the permit denial invalidated and seeks a ruling that no future president can block construction.
