Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke officially began the process Monday to expand offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/331449-interior-secretary-starts-process-for-offshore-drilling-expansion Press Releases
EPA Promotes Cooperation with States to Facilitate Safe Disposal of Coal Ash
05/01/2017
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt sent a
letter today informing states that EPA is working on guidance for implementing state permitting programs that allow flexibility in individual permits to manage the safe disposal of coal combustion residuals, known as CCR or “coal ash.” EPA expects that its new guidance will allow for the safe disposal and continued beneficial use of coal ash, while enabling states to decide what works best for their environment.
“EPA continues to support the environmentally sound recycling of coal ash,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Through the authority granted by Congress in the WIIN Act, EPA is issuing this guidance to promote the swift submission and review of state permit programs, make state and federal management of coal ash more consistent, and place enforcement in the hands of state regulators – those who best know the needs of local communities.”
Based on the concept of cooperative federalism that is the hallmark of our environmental laws, section 2301 of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN Act) authorizes state permit programs to manage coal combustion residuals. Through the WIIN Act, Congress provided authority for states to operate permit programs, as long as the EPA determines that the state’s requirements are at least as protective as the federal standards.
Legislation was necessary to better-facilitate implementation of EPA's 2014 CCR Final Rule. On December 19, 2014, EPA’s CCR Final Rule was issued, but did not grant EPA or states the authority to directly regulate and permit safe coal ash disposal, making citizen lawsuits the primary enforcement mechanism for disposal of coal ash under the rule. In December of 2016, Congress passed the WIIN Act, which included language giving state agencies the authority to implement and enforce coal ash under the 2014 CCR Final Rule through EPA-approved state permit programs. The WIIN Act also gives EPA the authority to regulate coal ash in states that choose not to implement state permitting programs and in states whose permitting programs are determined to be inadequate by EPA.
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Secretary Zinke Signs Orders Implementing America-First Offshore Energy Strategy Directs Development of New Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program to Spur Safe and Responsible Energy Development Offshore HOUSTON — On the stage of the Offshore Technology Conference, flanked by men and women who work on offshore oil and gas platforms, Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ryan Zinke today signed two secretarial orders aimed at unleashing America’s offshore energy potential and growing the U.S. economy. The
first order implements President Trump’s
Executive Order signed Friday and directs the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to develop a new five-year plan for oil and gas exploration in offshore waters and reconsider a number of regulations governing those activities. The
second order establishes a new position – Counselor to the Secretary for Energy Policy – to coordinate the Interior Department’s energy portfolio that spans nine of the Department’s ten bureaus.
"Following through on the leadership established by President Trump, today's orders will help cement our Nation's position as a global energy leader and foster energy independence and security for the benefit of the American people, while ensuring that this development is safe and environmentally responsible," Secretary Zinke told industry representatives at the annual Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. "We will conduct a thorough review of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for oil and gas exploration and listen to state and local stakeholders. We also will conduct a thorough review of regulations that were created with good intentions but have had harmful impacts on America's energy security."
Secretarial Order 3550 directs BOEM to immediately develop a new "Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Leasing Program" with full consideration given to leasing the OCS offshore Alaska, mid- and south-Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico. It also directs BOEM to work with the Department of Commerce's National Marine Fisheries Service to expedite authorization requests for seismic surveys, particularly for new or resubmitted permitting applications in the Atlantic to understand the extent of America's energy potential. The Secretary's order also directs prompt completion of the Notice to Lessees No. 2016-N01 dated September 12, 2016, and ceases all activities to promulgate the proposed "Offshore Air Quality Control, Reporting, and Compliance Rule." The order also directs BOEM and BSEE to review a host of other rules and report progress within 21 days.
"We're going to look at everything and make sure the policies are appropriate for each local community, rather than force a Washington-driven one-size-fits-all plan," said Zinke "There's no predetermined map of development, but if there are areas that are acceptable, that have resources, and states and local communities support offshore development, we could include those area in the next 5-Year Program."
As a featured speaker at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, TX, on Offshore Energy Policies: Harnessing the Full Potential of America’s Offshore, Zinke highlighted that OCS production currently accounts for about 18 percent of domestic crude oil and 4 percent of domestic natural gas supply. In Fiscal Year 2016, federal leasing revenues for the OCS were about $2.8 billion. By contrast, in 2008 federal leasing revenues for the OCS were nearly $18 billion dollars. "That's a drop of more than $15 billion that would otherwise go to the Treasury or toward funding important conservation programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Historic Preservation Fund," Zinke noted.
"Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will play vital roles in this expansive energy policy," Zinke noted while discussing the importance of strengthening frontline staffs to help them work closer with industry and communities. "We are committed to fuller cooperation with the offshore industry and coastal communities to expand responsible energy development while holding industry accountable to strict safety and environmental protections."
BSEE engineers work with offshore operators to carefully review and introduce new technology and ensure that operations remain safe and are conducted responsibly. BSEE inspectors conduct more than 19,000 inspections a year to ensure the safe and environmentally responsible operation of nearly 2,400 offshore oil and gas drilling and production facilities and 27,000 miles of pipeline.
Of the 1.7 billion acres on the OCS, only 16.9 million acres are leased for oil and gas development with 4.4 million of those acres (885 blocks) producing oil and gas. About 97 percent of all OCS leases are currently in the Gulf of Mexico. BOEM estimates the U.S. OCS has about 90 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and 327 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas. The Gulf of Mexico, covering 160 million acres of the OCS, has an estimated 48.46 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and 141.76 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas.
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Avian Flu Testing of Wild Ducks Informs Biosecurity and Can Reduce Economic Loss USGS
Release Date: MAY 1, 2017
Ducks in North America can be carriers of avian influenza viruses similar to those found in a 2016 outbreak in Indiana that led to the losses of hundreds of thousands of chickens and turkeys, according to a recent study.
A profile view of a Lesser Scaup at the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge located in Tulelake, California. Lesser Scaup is listed as a species of concern.(Credit: Dave Menke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Public domain.)
Understanding the genetic origins of avian influenza outbreaks through enhanced wild bird surveillance sampling can provide early warning to poultry producers, and lead to improved biosecurity measures that can reduce economic losses in future outbreaks.
To understand the origins of the novel strain of H7N8 avian influenza that caused the Indiana outbreak in January 2016, and possible role of wild birds in the outbreak, the USGS and collaborators examined over 400 wild bird viruses from across North America collected between 2007 and 2016.
They found that wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese, commonly carry avian influenza viruses and typically show no signs of illness. Wild bird viruses can be transferred to commercial poultry through their fecal material when deposited on soil and in water.
“It is really interesting that the study identified diving ducks, such as the Lesser Scaup, as carriers of viruses closely related to those found in poultry,” said Andy Ramey of the U.S. Geological Survey, one of the co-authors of the study. “Diving ducks are not often targeted for influenza sampling.”
“We found that a similar virus circulated among wild ducks in the Mississippi Flyway during autumn 2015, prior to the outbreak in Indiana turkeys,” said Dr. Henry Wan of Mississippi State University, another co-author of the study.
The authors —including researchers from USGS, Mississippi State University, University of Georgia, The Ohio State University, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture— concluded that diving ducks may serve an important and understudied role in the maintenance and transmission of avian influenza viruses in North America.
Introductions of avian influenza viruses from wild birds to domestic poultry present a continuous threat to the poultry industry. In 2016, the USGS developed a
science strategy that focuses on producing science to inform the national surveillance plan, which is coordinated through state and federal agencies across North America, and agency partners responsible for safeguarding U.S. poultry. Samples collected for this study were obtained as part of federal Interagency Wild Bird Surveillance and National Institutes of Health Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance programs. The U.S. Geological Survey conducts research and monitoring of avian diseases to safeguard the Nation's health, economy, and resources by leading science to understand and minimize exposures to infectious disease agents in the environment.
The new report in the Journal of Virology is entitled, “
Low pathogenic influenza A viruses in North American diving ducks contribute to the emergence of a novel highly pathogenic influenza A (H7N8) virus.”
Additional information about avian influenza can be found at:
USDA:
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian-influenza-disease U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/wildlife_disease/index.php U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center:
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/avian_influenza https://www.usgs.gov/news/avian-flu-testing-wild-ducks-informs-biosecurity-and-can-reduce-economic-loss 
