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Dr. James V. Koch, former president of ODU, has yet again backed away from his 2005 "report" on revenues resulting from Virginia's offshore drilling. "I surely wouldn't want to go to the cross over the quick once over that I gave to this important topic", he wrote in a recent email to me.
First, this really doesn't qualify as a report. Indeed, I don't even have a copy. I was given about 48 hours to produce a very quick estimate of the economic benefits (jobs, income, taxes) that might be generated by drilling off shore. Since I had no Virginia data, and no time to produce any, I looked at what had happened previously in Louisiana and a Canadian province as a guide. I did not have time to take environmental costs, etc., into account. I do not list this work on my C.V. because I did not invest the considerable time and attention that I give to the many economic impact studies that I do.
There's not much more to say. Those who pose my weekend of work as a full-blown study are making way too much of it. This was not the thorough study that needs to be done and I think should be done. By the same token, the numbers that I produced aren't fictional; they are based upon what has happened other places in roughly similar circumstances.
Nonetheless, that report is the exclusive basis for McDonnell's legislative agenda whereby offshore drilling revenues fund our transportation fixes.
Meanwhile the State of Florida has the novel idea of commissioning a state sponsored report as part of a state Senate review of whether a ban on offshore drilling should be lifted.
As reported in the Miami Herald, the report concludes that "[e]stimated reserves in Florida waters would provide the United States with less than a week's worth of oil and have no discernible effect on prices at the pump or U.S. reliance on foreign oil."
The report is the latest indication that the push to open Florida waters as near as three miles from the state's beaches may be waning, at least for this year.
Another is that all 12 lobbyists for Florida Energy Associates, a group of independent petroleum explorers known as "wildcatters," that's been pushing for lifting the ban have withdrawn, according to the Legislature's lobbyist registry.
According to DOI, Virginia too has less than a week's worth of oil off its shores - 6.5 days to be exact. But that's not the truth that Bob McDonnell and his merry band of Flat Earth Society members want to run with. They'll continue to run with a "report" that the author himself doesn't want to claim.
And who are we kidding?!? Could you ever imagine Virginia's legislature actually ordering a report to support their policy decisions?!?
In the heated debate over offshore drilling, policymakers have only addressed "how much": how much gas and oil, how much tax revenue, and how many new jobs they think it would create. Yet, from the standpoint of healthy oceans, they've largely ignored the coastal environment and economies that would be subjected to potential harm from new offshore drilling such as off Virginia's coast.
Sometimes as an aside to their calls to "drill, baby, drill" comes the condition that drilling be done in an "environmentally safe manner." But what does that mean?
Lost in the debate is the realization that drilling has not occurred off our Atlantic coast for almost 30 years, and thus information on the possible effects of Atlantic drilling "is 30 years out of date," as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar points out.
Revealed at a Department of Interior workshop in Williamsburg in December 2008, large data gaps exist when it comes to endangered and protected species, fish and fisheries, the benthos and biology of the ocean floor, the ecosystems found in Virginia's offshore ocean canyons and coral reefs, as well as physical and geological oceanography.
In the interest of thorough environmental study, Salazar is rightly resistant to the rush to drill that is currently sweeping Virginia. For not only are there huge gaps in the scientific information needed to evaluate the impact of drilling off Virginia's coast, but Virginia's offshore zone is a small microcosm in a much larger coastal and oceanic ecosystem.
Rather than singling out a small area off a single state for an environmental study, the Atlantic coast as a whole needs to be studied. Tidal flows, ocean currents and winds often carry oil spills far from their source. Popular beaches, protected wetlands, sensitive marine habitats, and commercial and sports fishing all up and down the East Coast could be threatened by a large spill in Virginia's offshore zone.
Offshore oil and gas platforms continue to experience catastrophic failures despite the technological advances touted by drilling advocates. The recent blowout on the barely 2-year-old oil platform off the coast of Australia spilled an estimated 6-9 million gallons of oil during the 10 weeks it took to cap the well. Growing to almost the footprint size of New Jersey and observable from space, the spill has now contaminated Indonesian waters with its 5,800-square-mile spread.
It is disturbing that in their rush to drill, oil and gas drilling advocates in Virginia would oppose prudent studies on the impact of drilling on our precious Chesapeake Bay, our sensitive coastal wetlands, and our highly lucrative tourism and fishing industries that are completely dependent on clean beaches and healthy ocean waters.
Offshore drilling advocates cannot have it both ways. If they are being honest when they call for drilling to be done in an environmentally safe manner, then they should endorse Salazar's insistence on thorough studies of the environmental impact of drilling. If, instead, they oppose those studies in their rush to drill, then it is clear that they have failed to appreciate the bounty we have in coastal Virginia and how much we stand to lose if oil drilling were to occur irresponsibly.
"The fact is, these things happen", said Louisiana's Sen. Mary Landrieu, amazingly trying to dismiss the overwhelming risks associated with offshore drilling. Standing in front of a large poster of the flaming Australian oil platform at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week, she even went as far as to accuse drilling opponents of lying and scare-mongering!
"All we did was testify about real things that have really happened, to make the point that despite advances in technology, mistakes are still made and accidents still happen - and with offshore oil production, the consequences still can be severe", writes Sky Truth's John Amos who was invited to testify on several significant oil spill incidents they've investigated over the past few years.
These investigations include "the recent Montara platform blowout and spill in the Timor Sea off Western Australia; this summer's spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the Eugene Island Pipeline operated by Shell; and the spills from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Ike in 2008, that exposed the Achilles heel of offshore production: the vulnerability and severe spill risk posed by the coastal infrastructure - especially pipelines and storage facilities - that is necessary to support offshore drilling."
Sky Truth was also commissioned to produce the image depicting the Australian oil spill off Virginia's coast. Click here to view image.
As an LTE in today's Virginian-Pilot points out (not online yet - see below the fold), politicians hinge their support of offshore drilling on its capacities to be done in an environmentally safe manner. The Australian spill especially shoots that pro-drilling argument to hell. The truth hurts and thus the knee-jerk reaction of people like Sen. Landrieu saying basically "shit happens".
Why in the world do we want shit to happen off our Virginia coasts?
Yesterday, on day #46 of the devastating oil spill that continues to dump oil into Australian seas, the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter released images of that spill plotted off Virginia's coast.
The images were commissioned from SkyTruth who used NASA and other government generated satellite images to depict the Australian oil spill that as of September 3 has grown to almost 9,900 square miles - larger than the square mile size of Vermont. The simple overlay of the Australian spill originating at a hypothetical well in the Lease Area 220 shows an oil spill of this size reaching Virginia Beach, Virginia's Eastern Shore and the northern Outer Banks.
"Supporters of offshore drilling have been saying there is no risk of a spill in Virginia waters with modern drilling technology. What is happening in Australia right now with a new rig built in 2007 proves that claim wrong," added Besa. "Plotted off Virginia's coast, the Australian oil spill should give Virginia great pause" said Glen Besa, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter Director. "All it takes is one spill to virtually shutdown Virginia's coastal economy, both tourism and fisheries, for years. Oil is still disrupting the natural environment in Prince William Sound 20 years after the Exxon Valdez spill."
The drilling rig involved in this disastrous offshore blowout was built in 2007. The oil platform used was constructed in 2008. These are the same rigs that the oil industry is suggesting for use off Virginia's shores.
The scale and duration of this huge spill should be an ongoing lesson to which we in Virginia pay close attention. Even new drilling technology is not safe, in spite of the oil industry's claims. The risk of spills still exists and even just one spill would levy disastrous impacts on our Virginia coastal economies and environment.
Worries about the oil spill off Australia's north west coast are now being worsened by fears about the chemicals being used to control it. The spill at the West Atlas drill rig in the Timor Sea started more than three weeks ago, and no-one believes it will take less than three more weeks to plug the oil. The slick is now so big it can be seen from space, and a light sheen has crept within ten kilometres of Ashmore Reef. Fishermen say a fifth of their waters have been polluted by the oil and they're worried that fish could be poisoned.
The above graphic produced by SkyTruth illustrates a "what if" that blowout occurred off the coast of Florida. Granted, Florida currents are different than Australia currents. This graphic is provided only to give you a sense of the size of this spill. The purple blob which depicts the size of the Australian oil spill and superimposed on the Florida coast was taken from NASA satellite images dating back to Aug. 30. Satellite images of the Timor Sea taken on Sept. 3 reveals the area of slicks and sheen more than doubled in size in just 4 days, from 2,500 sq miles on Aug. 30 to 5,800 sq miles on Sept. 3. That's larger than the state of Connecticut at 5,544 square miles.
Dramatic remote-sensing photographs provided by NASA and other federal agencies are available to view online at SkyTruth.
Why, Virginia, why??? Why would we even remotely consider drilling off our shores? So much risk while so little return.
As the oil rig blowout near Western Australia enters its 19th day of uncontrolled release of oil into the sea, the extent of the spill is now the size of the State of Connecticut, at approximately 5,800 square miles and growing.
A NASA satellite image of the Timor Sea taken on September 3 reveals the area of slicks and sheen more than doubled in size in just 4 days, from 2,500 sq miles on Aug. 30 to 5,800 sq miles on Sept. 3. Dramatic remote-sensing photographs provided by NASA and other federal agencies are available to view online at http://blog.skytruth.org/.
The Australian government also announced yesterday that it has launched a major investigation into the cause of the blowout and resulting spill.
The West Atlas drilling rig involved in this offshore blowout was built in 2007. The Montara oil platform was constructed in 2008.
Controlling the flow of oil from this rig blowout is expected to take at least seven weeks. Officials estimate that until the spill can be brought under control, between 300 and 400 barrels of oil continue to spill into the ocean each day.
"This so-called modern offshore drilling operation has allowed a tragic oil spill in Australian waters. Even industry's best available technology cannot stop it for weeks," said Richard Charter, Co-Chair of the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition.
"Offshore drilling is risky business. This spill shows what could happen if we open more of America's coasts to drilling," said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope.
Last year, the nearly 30-year-old congressional and Presidential ban on offshore drilling in the lower 48 states was lifted. In November 2008, the Bush Administration designated a 2.9 million acre area off the Virginia coast (Lease Sale 220) for oil and gas drilling.
"The scale and duration of this huge spill should be an ongoing lesson to which we in Virginia pay close attention," said Eileen Levandoski, Hampton Roads organizer with the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. "For despite new drilling technology, the risk of spills still exists and even just one spill would levy disastrous impacts on our Virginia coastal economies and environment."
"The whole world is watching," said Charter. "We face votes very soon in the Florida and California legislatures, as well as the U.S. Senate, that will determine whether or not this same type of drilling rig will be allowed to operate in long-protected coastal waters here."
I've seen this Dawn ad on TV a few times and I really don't know what to think about it.
They've launched a campaign to save wildlife (DawnSavesWildlife.com), donating $1 to the International Bird Rescue Research Center and the Marine Mammal Center for every Dawn dish soap bottle purchased. They also have the following sweepstakes.
Conservationists at the International Bird Rescue Research Center and the Marine Mammal Center love Dawn® because it helps them save wildlife by safely, gently removing oil from animals' delicate feathers and skin. Since rescuers discovered the benefits of Dawn over 30 years ago, they've used thousands of donated bottles of dish soap in oil spill cleanups.
Enter the Dawn® Wildlife Rescue Sweepstakes for a chance to be an Everyday Wildlife Champion and win:
Grand Prize Winner will receive $3,000 which can be used toward a trip to California where they can meet animal rescuers at the International Bird Rescue Research Center or the Marine Mammal Center.
Three Monthly First Prize Winners will each receive $1,000 which can be used toward an annual membership to their local zoo, a subscription to their favorite nature magazine and wildlife books and DVDs.
Daily Prize Winners will each receive a coupon for a free bottle of Dawn Ultra.
This is all very wonderful, great and good, but like I said - what is this campaign inferring? Deliberately or not, it appears very much like an anti-drilling campaign. And I love it! How ridiculous is it that we inflict such hazards on these precious little creatures in the first place.
But at the same time, there could also be the message that oil spills are so routine that their effects even pop up in dish detergent ads. Bounty paper towels may be the quicker-picker-upper but Dawn dish soap does a helluva job on oil soaked ducklings. Carry on with the drilling therefore.
Former congresswoman Thelma Drake has a new job. As the Virginian-Pilot reports today, she is "a consultant at the Richmond-based law, lobbying and consulting firm, FutureLaw" where she "expects to work in areas such as alternative energy and commercial real estate."
Considering how Thelma Drake along with State Senator Frank Wagner are the original instigators of Virginia Lease Sale 220, one can assume oil and gas from drilling off Virginia's clean-for-now beaches are included in that redefinition of "alternative energy".
Other evidence of the redefinition of the term comes from Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms who recently formed as "Mayor's Alternative Energy Task Force". Last Wednesday they had their first meeting. On the agenda were presentations by Dominion Virginia Power and Virginia Natural Gas.
The Virginia Beach Hotel Motel Association is hip on the new terminology too. They recently penned a letter to Mayor Sessoms voicing their support for "exploration for alternative energy sources off the coast of Virginia to include oil, natural gas and wind."
"Our position is predicated on the fact that exploration or extraction will have no adverse implications on the hospitality industry, as presented by the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium", writes Verne Burlage, President of the VBHMA.
First off, VCERC made no such presentations. Their research has been exclusively focused on "renewable" energy resources off our coasts to include wind, wave and bio-diesel from algae. Nice try though.
According to Wikipedia, the term indeed appears to have been hijacked:
Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels. Typically, official uses of the term, such as qualification for governmental incentives, exclude fossil fuels and nuclear energy whose undesired consequences are high carbon dioxide emissions, the major contributing factor of global warming according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and difficulties of radioactive waste disposal. Over the years, the nature of what was regarded alternative energy sources has changed considerably, and today because of the variety of energy choices and differing goals of their advocates, defining some energy types as "alternative" is highly controversial.
Remarkably clever move by the "Drill Baby Drill" forces - hitch your wagon to the popular pursuits of wind and solar energy, re-brand and push a term "alternative" that still to most folks infers clean energy resources. Damn, will this be a tough nut to crack!
Yesterday the Accomack County Board of Supervisors voted by Resolution dated April 15, 2009 to "now go officially on record as being opposed to the lease of drilling rights offshore". Click here to read the full Resolution.
Mineral Management Services' (MMS) recent Call for Information, as published in the Federal Register on Nov. 13, 2008, resulted in responses from NASA, the Navy and the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority opposing Virginia Lease Sale 220. The Greater Salisbury Committee, Inc. last month also wrote to MMS opposing the lease sale.
About 72 percent of Virginia's offshore natural gas drilling zone lies within the boundaries of the U. S. Navy's Virginia Capes Operating Area, according to a 2007 report by Joseph F. Bouchard included in supervisors' information packet.
Bouchard said the VACAPES Range Complex is the principal training area for air, surface and submarine units in Hampton Roads, where more than 80,000 active duty Navy personnel are based. He concluded drilling in the area would have a "serious negative impact on U. S. national security."
A 2004 Salisbury University study showed the Navy Surface Combat Systems Center at Wallops has a $58 million impact annually on Accomack County's economy and another $25 million on Wicomico County, Md., $24.5 million on Worcester County, Md. and $2 million on Northampton County.
Yesterday, the Richmond-Times Dispatch published an article that covered Larry Nichols' (an energy executive from Oklahoma City) recent speech to the World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond in which he argues that Virginia needs to move forward on offshore drilling.
Here are a few excerpts and observations:
Nichols said oil and gas will remain key energy sources for a long time.
"I'm 100 percent in favor of alternative energy, but wind and solar and whatever else is out there are not very significant now and are not going to be very significant for decades to come," he said.
While wind and solar power are currently not being pursued in Virginia, that doesn't mean that these energy sources aren't "significant." In fact, oil reserves off Virginia's, and the rest of the Atlantic, coast areinsignificant. Developing the infrastructure for offshore wind will take some time (as it would for offshore drilling) but wind reserves are plentiful as can be seen in the map above and won't deplete over time(the red represents "Outstanding" wind reserves off of the Virginia, and much of the Atlantic, coast). The technology to develop wind energy off of our coasts is here. We just need to make the investment.
Offshore drilling has become an issue in the governor's race. (after the jump)
Here's great video (another one below the fold) that allow us in Virginia to envision life on our Virginia beaches as we allow drilling off our coasts.
We should also envision these types of headlines gracing the front pages of the Virginian-Pilot:
Last week, gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell wrote the other candidates for Governor asking them to join him in signing a letter to Interior Secretary Salazar. It was a letter that asked the new Interior Secretary to reject Governor Kaine's recent request that Virginia Lease Sale 220 be removed from the 2007-2012 program and included instead with the 2010-2015 program for offshore oil and gas lease sales. In essence, McDonnell's letter asserts that it is somehow a bad idea to proceed with gathering adequate information and ensure that we have the scientific data needed to make a reasoned decision about the aggressive Bush offshore drilling plans now still aimed at our coastline here in Virginia.
The coast of Virginia is now at a point in the offshore drilling program where a recent "Call for Information" (deadline was Jan. 13, 2009) has asked for "particular environmental, biological, archaeological, socioeconomic, and geological conditions or potential conflicts, or other information that might bear upon the potential leasing, exploration, and development of the program area and vicinity." The requested information was solicited for the Virginia waters located strictly within the initial 2.9 million acres comprising the federal Lease Sale 220 area, but Interior did not ask what Virginians think about a second followup offshore drilling plan only three miles from shore, now scheduled for 2014.
It is this additional expanded drilling plan for which the Interior Secretary has just announced an entirely reasonable 180-day extension of the public comment period as it encompasses waters much closer to shore. "To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside 'the plan' and create our own timeline," Salazar announced. "Our available data is very old and incomplete," he told reporters. "We shouldn't make decisions on America's treasures based on old information."
Governor Kaine simply calls for the temporary postponement of Virginia Lease Sale 220. "This Lease Sale is the only one currently proposed anywhere along the Atlantic seaboard," he writes. "I believe that no lease sale should be conducted in the Atlantic until the process that you have outlined for the 5 Year Program [2010-2015] is complete."
Including Virginia in the same process used to study all other Atlantic offshore drilling, and to incorporate adequate information about other offshore areas of Virginia, makes sense. Certainly, if MMS doesn't have enough information and studies to safely conduct any other lease sales in our region, they certainly do not know enough to conduct the FIRST lease sale, Virginia's Lease Sale 220, which goes on the auction block as early as 2011.
On the subject of Virginia offshore drilling, gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell is wrong, wrong, wrong.
He's wrong by already banking on imaginary non-existent resources off Virginia's shore as Lowell points out here. He's wrong about the imaginary non-existent jobs coming to Virginia as an alleged result of drilling, as my op ed hopefully coming to the Virginian-Pilot points out.
But his biggest boo-boo is pointed out by today's Virginian-Pilot in a searing editorial entitled "Political Pandering is No Energy Solution". "Would-be governor drills a dry hole", they write.
"McDonnell's position on offshore drilling neither respects the position of Virginians nor the law of the land."
"Unfortunately for his hopes of gaining advantage, the people in Hampton Roads know offshore drilling is too important an issue to be lost in the usual gamesmanship."
"We expected such stubbornness from the Bush administration, which was populated by people who somehow managed to pay lip service to the dangers of climate change while also doing nothing about it. And from legislators - including those from Virginia - who were bought and paid for by the petroleum industry.
None of that explains the political theater orchestrated by Bob McDonnell, the former attorney general and current Republican candidate for governor, that unfolded over the past week."
Thanks to former Rep. Thelma Drake and State Senator Frank Wagner, may I present to you little lonely Virginia, all by itself on the Atlantic coast, poised and ready for lease sale as early as 2011.
It was actually under Gov. Mark Warner's administration that MMS was prompted by the infamous "Drilling Duo" to put Virginia in the 2007-2012 Five year plan. That action came mere months after both houses of the Virginia General Assembly passed (Feb. 2005) a Wagner bill (SB1054 Natural gas exploration, off-shore; exemption to existing moratorium.) Gov. Warner vetoed that bill (April 2005), but regardless, come Feb. 2006 we get the big announcement that Virginia has been put in the 5 Year plan. The train was already out of the station by the time Gov. Kaine signed Virginia's Energy Plan, which contains the exploration for natural gas only language, which he has repeatedly had to reiterate and reinforce with the Feds.
But it is a new day, new year, new administration. This time Gov. Kaine will be listened to.
In a letter dated Feb. 19, 2009, Kaine calls for the postponement of Virginia Lease Sale 220. "This Lease Sale is the only one currently proposed anywhere along the Atlantic seaboard," he writes.
"I believe that no lease sale should be conducted in the Atlantic until the process that you have outlined for the 5 Year Program [2010-2015] is complete."
Including Virginia in the same process used to study all other Atlantic offshore drilling, to include other offshore areas of Virginia, makes sense. Certainly, if MMS doesn't have enough information and studies to safely conduct any other lease sales in our area, they certainly does not know enough to conduct the FIRST lease sale.
Sen. Frank Wagner will be testifying tomorrow (Tues.) in a hearing before Chairman Nick Rahall's House Natural Resources Committee. This time, hopefully, Wagner won't again "misrepresent" the truth before Congress as he did in his congressional testimony in June 2007 where he spread the following "mistruths":
Mistruth #1: "Keeping Virginia in the five year program is consistent with the desire of the Virginia General Assembly".
Mistruth #2: "Virginia has adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards" (said in an attempt to trump Virginia's supposedly comprehensive energy plan and it's plans to include offshore oil and gas in those supposed plans).
The contact phone for this House Committee is (202) 225-6065. Available here is a live webcast of committee hearings. Check out Wagner tomorrow starting at 10am.
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"The fact is, these things happen", said Louisiana's Sen. Mary Landrieu, amazingly trying to dismiss the overwhelming risks associated with offshore drilling. Standing in front of a large poster of the flaming Australian oil platform at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week, she even went as far as to accuse drilling opponents of lying and scare-mongering!
Former congresswoman Thelma Drake has a new job. As the Virginian-Pilot reports today, she is "a consultant at the Richmond-based law, lobbying and consulting firm, FutureLaw" where she "expects to work in areas such as alternative energy and commercial real estate."
Yesterday the Accomack County Board of Supervisors voted by Resolution dated April 15, 2009 to "now go officially on record as being opposed to the lease of drilling rights offshore". 
Last week, gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell wrote the other candidates for Governor asking them to join him in signing a letter to Interior Secretary Salazar. It was a letter that asked the new Interior Secretary to reject Governor Kaine's recent request that Virginia Lease Sale 220 be removed from the 2007-2012 program and included instead with the 2010-2015 program for offshore oil and gas lease sales. In essence, McDonnell's letter asserts that it is somehow a bad idea to proceed with gathering adequate information and ensure that we have the scientific data needed to make a reasoned decision about the aggressive Bush offshore drilling plans now still aimed at our coastline here in Virginia.
On the subject of Virginia offshore drilling, gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Thanks to former Rep. Thelma Drake and State Senator Frank Wagner, may I present to you little lonely Virginia, all by itself on the Atlantic coast, poised and ready for lease sale as early as 2011.
