At least 14 of them are EP (Exploratory Plans). Perhaps Exploratory and Maintenance are the same thing?
:shrug:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_energy_development/oil_and_gas/gulf_oil_spill/pdfs/MMS_Approved_Drilling_2010-05-07_v2.pdfHere's the good news and the bad news. After weeks of controversy, nebulous Salazar has finally been forced to at least commit something on the actual policy in this crisis to physical paper.
For Immediate Release, May 31, 2010
Contact: Kierán Suckling (520) 275-5960
Interior Formalizes Oil-drilling Moratorium
Center Applauds Deepwater Action, Decries Lifting of Shallow Moratorium and
Continuation of Environmental Waivers
TUCSON, Ariz.— Interior Secretary Ken Salazar yesterday released the Department of the Interior’s written description of the six-month drilling moratorium announced by President Barack Obama last week. Salazar has been heavily criticized for breaches of his previous moratorium — which allowed at least 17 drilling permits to be issued — and for defining the moratorium differently with each new revelation of an approved drilling permit. It was later determined that Salazar’s previous moratorium had only been issued verbally.
The current moratorium lifts limits placed on drilling in waters less than 500 feet deep, which were put in place on May 6, 2010. Such drilling can now continue unabated, while under the May 6 moratorium new wells were not allowed to be initiated in waters less than 500 feet deep. The oil industry and Republican congresspersons have been heavily pressuring Salazar to exempt drilling in shallower waters from his moratorium.
The current moratorium expands limitations on drilling in waters greater than 500 feet deep for the next six months. Oil companies are allowed to continue retrieving oil from already completed wells, but they are not allowed to do any kind of drilling to initiate or complete new wells. This broader scope responds to criticism that Interior’s previous moratorium continued to allow the very same kind of drilling that was occurring on BP’s Deepwater Horizon when it exploded. The new moratorium does not allow such drilling types.
The current moratorium also allows the continued granting of highly controversial environmental waivers to drilling plans. The Deepwater Horizon drilling plan was approved with such a waiver, and at least 19 additional plans have been granted waivers since the Deepwater’s explosion on April 20, 2010. The waivers are being granted under the clearly false declaration that oil drilling poses no threat to the environment.
“We’re glad to see the moratorium has been expanded to cover all deepwater drilling,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, “but we’re very upset that restrictions on shallower-water drilling have been lifted. All offshore oil drilling, whether deep or shallow, is dangerous and should be suspended.
“It is unbelievable that the Interior Department is continuing to exempt all drilling plans, deep or shallow, from environmental review. There is absolutely no question that offshore oil drilling is a danger to the environment and the fishing economy. Just look at the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. It is not only illegal, it is deeply unethical for Salazar to allow these waivers to continue in the midst of the greatest environmental catastrophe in American history.”
The Center for Biological Diversity called upon Secretary Salazar to take the following actions immediately:
1. Remove former BP executive Sylvia Baca from her job as deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management. Secretary Salazar expressed outrage at the Inspector General’s finding earlier this week that the revolving door between the oil industry and the Minerals Management Service has undermined the agency’s effectiveness and credibility. He did not mention, however, that in June 2009 he himself appointed a BP executive to oversee the Minerals Management Service.
“Sylvia Baca is a classic example of the revolving door between oil companies and the MMS,” said Suckling. “It was a terrible judgment call to appoint her; it is politically catastrophic to keep her. If Salazar is serious about reform, he needs to start with his own interest-conflicted appointments.”
2. Ban the use of environmental waivers for offshore exploration and production plans. Such waivers are designed for very small-impact projects such as constructing hiking trails and outhouses. There is no possible scenario in which an offshore drilling project — whether deepwater, ultradeepwater, or shallow water — can be considered a non-threat to the environment, economy, and endangered species.
3. Rescind all drilling approvals issued with environmental waivers. Hundreds of dangerous offshore oil platforms are operating today in the Gulf of Mexico without having undergone any environmental review. These dangerous drilling projects are operating illegally and threaten the Gulf with additional oil spills.
4. Rescind the Interior Department’s plan to open up new areas on the Atlantic Coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska to offshore oil drilling. The president’s announcement, made on March 31, 2010, three weeks before the BP explosion, was made on the false premise that offshore oil drilling is safe.
5. Permanently ban all new offshore oil drilling, beginning in Alaska. As a nation, we need to transition to clean energy sources such as sun and wind as fast as possible. Pushing forward with new, dangerous, and dirty offshore oil drilling sends the wrong signal to energy companies and technology developers. Continued subsidizing of Big Oil is a major hindrance to our nation’s development of clean energy.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 260,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/DrillingMoratorium-05-31-2010.htmlBackgound prior to that:
Controversial Salazar "Moratorium" on Gulf Drilling Was Only Verbal(...)
Background
Salazar’s 5-6-10 press release announcing the moratorium says: “In a media availability after the meeting, Secretary Salazar announced that, as a result of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, beginning April 20 — the date of the explosion — no applications for drilling permits will go forward for any new offshore drilling activity until the Department of the Interior completes the safety review process that President Obama requested. In accordance with the President’s request, the Department will deliver its report to the President by May 28, 2010. The only exceptions to the new rule regarding permit approvals are the two relief wells that are being drilled in response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”
His 5-7-10 press release says the same thing: “Offshore Drilling Permit Applications Halted Secretary Salazar announced that, as a result of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, beginning April 20 — the date of the explosion — no applications for drilling permits will go forward for any new offshore drilling activity until the Department of the Interior completes the safety review process that President Obama requested. In accordance with the President’s request, the Department will deliver its report to the President by May 28. The only exceptions to the new rule regarding permit approvals are the two relief wells that are being drilled in response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”
When confronted with the fact that MMS has issued 17 new drilling permits since April 20, Interior spokespeople inexplicably denied that the moratorium applied to “any new offshore drilling activity,” saying that it actually only applied to drilling of new wells. This allows the majority of MMS drilling permits, including the kind used by the Deepwater Horizon, to proceed unabated.
Salazar subsequently told Congress (and Carol Browner told the media) that no new wells had been drilled since April 20. Confronted with the fact that new wells have been drilled since April 20, Interior spokespeople said the secretary was mistaken and that the moratorium only applies to new permits.
While the permit moratorium at least halts a minimal number of projects, Salazar has placed no moratorium at all on the approval of drilling plans without environmental review even though the president himself declared on May 14: “It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore…We’re also closing the loophole that has allowed some oil companies to bypass some critical environmental reviews....”
MMS to this day is approving drilling plans without environmental review. Many are for ultra-deep water drilling, which is yet more dangerous than the Deepwater Horizon.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/drilling-moratorium-05-26--2010.html
(...)
The administration's statements about the ban on new drilling have been straightforward. "We've announced that no permits for drilling new wells will go forward until the 30-day safety and environmental review that I requested is complete," President Obama said May 14 in the White House Rose Garden.
Testifying before Congress on May 18, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made it sound equally clear. "The president has been very clear with me: Hit the pause button," Salazar said. "We have hit the pause button."
The day of that hearing, the AP reported that MMS had approved at least nine deepwater exploration wells in the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20, with minimal environmental reviews.
'Best Information'
When asked about that article, Salazar criticized what he called "facts and figures and misunderstandings" that have been "flying from all directions."
"There is no deepwater well in the OCS that has been spudded — that means started — after April 20," Salazar testified. The OCS is the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico.
Salazar added, "We have a responsibility to come up with the best information and the best facts with respect to all these issues."
But Salazar did not have the best information or the best facts. In an e-mail, Interior Department spokesman Matt Lee-Ashley wrote that "the Secretary misspoke at the hearing."
(...)
Looking For Ban Documents
One source of confusion is the apparent lack of an original document laying out all the details of the moratorium. Mike Senatore is with Defenders of Wildlife, another environmental group that is suing the administration.
"We have, in fact, been trying to locate and to actually get from the Interior Department something that actually documents that there is in fact a suspension," says Senatore.
In fact, two Interior officials tell NPR the drilling suspension was not put into writing.
"It was a straightforward verbal order to the director of MMS, which was then transmitted within MMS," said one official in an email.
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Organizations/Schools/New+York+University/0gdS7ne2cZ0Y7/1Freeze On Offshore Drilling Was Verbal Orderby Ari Shapiro
May 25, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127114044
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