Trump's EPA hit with lawsuit over suspension of oil- and gas-drilling rules

A group of conservation organizations sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, saying the agency unlawfully suspended Obama-era rules to cut methane pollution.

The lawsuit is another sign that environmentalists intend to use the courts to block President Donald Trump's effort to roll back energy regulations and climate change initiatives pushed by his predecessor.

Environmental groups have already sued the president over his approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and for seeking to overturn President Barack Obama's ban on offshore drilling in the Arctic. Some nonprofits, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, have also sued over Trump's executive order requiring federal agencies to repeal two regulations for every new one they propose.


Six conservation groups on Monday filed suit after the EPA last week suspended implementation of rules meant to prevent methane leaks from oil and gas operations. They said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a 90-day stay without giving the public advance notice or the opportunity to comment, as required by law.

"In its haste to do favors for its polluter cronies, the Trump EPA has broken the law," Meleah Geertsma, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. "The Trump administration does not have unlimited power to put people's health in jeopardy with unchecked, unilateral executive action like this."

The groups are asking the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals to review the EPA's action and either temporarily block it or throw it out altogether.

The EPA asserted in a press release last week that it has the authority to issue the stay under the Clean Air Act while it reviews the rule. Trump ordered the review as part of a wide-ranging executive order that targeted Obama-era climate policies.

An agency spokesperson told CNBC that the EPA does not comment on ongoing litigation.

This comes after Senate Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to overturn a similar Bureau of Land Management methane rule regulating drilling on federal and Native American land.

Both the EPA and BLM rule have been challenged in court by a number of oil-producing states with backing from the energy industry.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/05/conservation-groups-sue-epa-over-stay-of-oil-and-gas-drilling-rules.html

One arrested, others sought in Roseville construction site burglary

A Fair Oaks man has been arrested and other people are being sought in connection with a Roseville construction site burglary.

Shaun Austin Page, 37, was arrested on suspicion of burglary and conspiracy as well as a Sonoma County warrant, according to a Roseville Police Department Facebook post.

The arrest followed an investigation that began at 2:52 p.m. May 28 when officers received a report of a burglary in progress at a large construction site in the 7700 block of Foothills Boulevard. A witness reported seeing a white vehicle traveling through the job site and a man running.

The intruders had cut locks to enter the property, broken into storage containers and moved construction vehicles around, causing significant damage, according to police.

Officers surrounded the site and searched the area with the help of a Sacramento County sheriff’s helicopter but were unable to locate anyone. Evidence was collected for further investigation.

Later that night, an officer went back to check the site and found that the thieves had returned. A white SUV with a cargo trailer attached was parked at an entrance to the property. Its doors were open and the engine was still warm.

Officers checked the site again and found more items had been moved around. Police had the SUV and the trailer towed.

The investigation led detectives to a Fair Oaks home on Thursday. They found evidence connected with the Roseville construction site burglary, as well as a dirt bike and an all-terrain vehicle, both stolen from Sacramento.

Police said the stolen vehicles were returned to their owners.

Roseville police reported that additional suspects have been identified and more arrests are expected.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article154528904.html

Feds outline impacts of proposed oil and gas surveys

The federal government wants the public to weigh in on proposals that would allow five Texas companies to survey the Atlantic Ocean floor with powerful air guns that can harm the hearing and alter behavior of dolphins, whales and other marine life.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is proposing to allow the oil and gas surveys to harm marine life "incidentally," but with monitoring, reporting and measures to minimize the impacts.

"What they're requesting from us is the authorization to harass marine mammals as they're doing this activity," said Jolie Harrison, chief of permits and conservation at NOAA Fisheries.

Between 1966 and 1988, the energy industry gathered two-dimensional surveys of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. But industry officials say new technology could provide much-improved three-dimensional surveys of potential oil and gas deposit areas.

The federal government is considering allowing seismic surveys from just south of Cape Canaveral to Delaware in federal waters, from 3 to 350 nautical miles out to sea, an area about double the size of California. But the geological surveys and impacts could cross into state waters closer to shore as well.

The nonprofit Oceana opposes the tests, pointing to NOAA estimates showing seismic airgun testing could injure as many as 138,000 dolphins, whales and other marine mammals and disturb many more.

“This threat is real and it’s coming fast,” Nancy Pyne, campaign director at Oceana, said in a prepared statement. “Coastal communities have the most to lose, but unfortunately their overwhelming opposition may be ignored by the Trump administration.

"The threats of seismic airgun blasting alone are bad enough, but it’s also the first step to offshore drilling, which could lead to the industrialization of coastal communities and the risk of another BP Deepwater Horizon-like disaster," Pyne added. "The time to protect our coast is now.”

At the time, regulators said the permits were no longer needed because the federal government removed those waters from the list of areas available to be leased for oil and gas exploration between 2017 and 2022, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

But in late April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding offshore drilling and exploration in federal waters. The order calls for a review of the Five-Year Program (2017-2022) for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf. It also directs the administration to fast-track the permitting for seismic airgun testing.

BOEM recently resumed its permitting process for seismic surveys in the Atlantic. As a result, NOAA is moving forward with the related proposed "incidental harassment authorizations" required before the seismic surveys are allowed.

If approved, the surveys would include measures to minimize harm to marine mammals, including on-board observers to listen and watch for protected marine life to alert operators. There also would be restrictions to eliminate or reduce impacts to sensitive species in their preferred habitats and acoustic monitoring to detect marine mammal underwater vocalizations.

The survey operations would have to shut down when certain sensitive species or groups of animals are observed.

Industry officials said current seismic surveying technology is safe, efficient and scientifically proven, and that further exploration is needed to meet American energy security needs.

The seismic surveys generate maps or models of rock distributions and other geological structures to show potential for oil and gas deposits. But conservation groups worried that the seismic testing could harm marine life, especially endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The deep-penetration seismic surveys are conducted by vessels that tow an array of air guns that emit acoustic energy pulses into the seafloor over large areas and long periods of time, according to BOEM. The air guns penetrate several thousand meters beneath the seafloor.

More than 120 East Coast municipalities, 1,200 elected officials, 35,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families have publicly opposed offshore drilling and/or seismic airgun blasting, according to Oceana, which has fought against the seismic testing.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/environment/2017/06/05/feds-outline-impacts-proposed-oil-and-gas-surveys/370346001/

Construction Begins on the Next Super Telescope

The construction of the world’s largest telescope has begun. At a ceremony at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, officials gathered to celebrate the first stone of the European Extremely Large Telescope’s (E-ELT) long-awaited construction. Sophisticated telescope projects like the E-ELT take many years, so we can expect another similar ceremony sometime in 2021, when the E-ELT will see first light.

The E-ELT is the ESO’s flagship observatory. It’s primary mirror will be a 39.3 meter (129 ft.) monstrosity that will observe in the visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared spectra. The construction of the site began in 2014, but this ceremony marks the beginning of the construction of the main telescope and its dome. The ceremony also marks the connection of the telescope to the electricity grid.

The Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, attended the ceremony. She was welcomed by the Director General of ESO Tim de Zeeuw, by ELT Programme Manager Roberto Tamai, and by other officials from the ESO. Staff from the La Silla Paranal Observatory, and numerous engineers and technicians—as well as numerous representatives from Chilean government and industry—also attended the ceremony.

“With the symbolic start of this construction work, we are building more than a telescope here.” – President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria

In her speech, the President spoke in favor of the E-ELT, and in support of science and cooperation. “With the symbolic start of this construction work, we are building more than a telescope here: it is one of the greatest expressions of scientific and technological capabilities and of the extraordinary potential of international cooperation.”

At the ceremony, a time capsule from ESO was sealed into place. The capsule is a hexagon shaped, one-fifth scale model of the E-ELT containing a poster made of photographs of current ESO staff, and a copy of the book detailing the E-ELT’s science goals.

The first stone ceremony is definitely an important milestone for this Super Telescope, but it’s just one of the milestones reached by the E-ELT in the past two weeks.

The secondary mirror for the E-ELT has already been cast, and the ESO has announced that the contracts for the primary mirror have now been signed. The primary mirror segment blanks, all 798 of them, will be made by the Germany company SCHOTT. Once produced, they will be polished by the French company Safran Reosc. Safran Reosc will also mount and test the mirror segments.

“This has been an extraordinary two weeks!” – Tim de Zeeuw, European Southern Observatory’s Director General

Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, is clearly excited about the progress being made on the E-ELT. At the contract signing, de Zeeuw said, “This has been an extraordinary two weeks! We saw the casting of the ELT’s secondary mirror and then, last Friday, we were privileged to have the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, attend the first stone ceremony of the ELT. And now two world-leading European companies are starting work on the telescope’s enormous main mirror, perhaps the biggest challenge of all.”

It’s taken an enormous amount of work to get to the construction stage of the world’s largest telescope. Scientist’s, engineers, and technicians have been working for years to get this far. But without the contribution of Chile, none of it would happen. Chile is the world’s astronomy capital, and they continue working with the ESO and other nations to drive scientific discovery forward.

The E-ELT has three broad-based science objectives. It will:

• Probe Earth-like exoplanets for signs of life
• Study the nature of dark energy and dark matter
• Observe the Universe’s early stages to understand our origins and the origin of galaxies and solar systems

Along the way, it will no doubt raise new questions that we can’t even imagine yet.

https://www.universetoday.com/135786/construction-begins-next-super-telescope/

Mexico's oil, gas reserves slip in 2016: regulator

Mexico's oil and gas reserves fell last year as fewer discoveries of gas deposits offset a rise in additional crude reserves, the sector regulator said on Tuesday.

Overall so-called 2P hydrocarbon reserves, or deposits considered proven and probable, fell nearly 6 percent in 2016 to total 16.77 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), compared to 2015 figures, regulator CNH said.

There is a 50 percent likelihood of commercial recovery of 2P reserves using existing technology.

Meanwhile, Mexico's so-called 3P reserves, deposits considered proven, probable and possible, slipped 1.1 percent to total 25.86 billion boe, compared to the previous year.

There is a 10 percent likelihood of commercial recovery of 3P reserves using existing technology.

Mexico, the world's 11th biggest oil producer, aims for a 100 percent replacement rate of its reserves to balance out current crude output of slightly above 2 million barrels per day.

National oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, better known as Pemex, has suffered steep budgets cuts over the past couple of years amid falling oil prices, which has harmed the company's ability to make new discoveries and boost reserves.

Energy reforms enacted in 2013 ended Pemex's decades-long monopoly and allowed new private oil and gas producers to operate on their own. But significant new streams of output from the new entrants into the market are still several years off.

Mexico's 1P, or proven, reserves stood at 9.16 billion boe in 2016, or down by about 10 percent compared to the previous year, according to CNH data released in March.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-energy-idUSKBN18Q2KB

Air Force Base in Alaska Opens South Gate for Construction

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A gate on the south side of Eielson Air Force Base is opening this week to give construction crews easier access.

The Daily News-Miner reports (http://bit.ly/2rjqvUr ) the gate is opening Thursday. It will be for construction-related traffic only.

Much of the construction is going to be on the new F-35 fighter planes scheduled to arrive in 2020.

The next few summers at Eielson will be busy, as the Air Force plans to add 36 buildings and 420,000 square feet (39,018 square meters) of infrastructure.

The Air Force cautions drivers to watch out for large vehicles entering and exiting the base at the south-side gate. The gate should help ease traffic at the base's main entrance.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alaska/articles/2017-05-31/air-force-base-in-alaska-opens-south-gate-for-construction

Deadline day for oil and gas inspections in Colorado following fatal explosion

Colorado’s energy companies are facing a deadline today to report to the state the results of inspections on oil and gas wells statewide — and the location of pipelines associated with wells within 1,000 feet of buildings.

The inspections have been a massive undertaking in a short timeline, since the order covers all of the more than 54,000 active wells in Colorado.

The inspection order was issued by Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) on May 2, shortly after local Firestone fire officials announced they had linked a fatal April 17 home explosion to raw natural gas leaking through a small, abandoned one-inch flow line that was found still attached to an oil and gas well about 178 feet from the house at 6312 Twilight Ave.

Homeowner Mark Martinez, 42, was killed in the disaster in Firestone’s Oak Meadows neighborhood, as was his wife Erin’s brother, Joseph William “Joey” Irwin III, also 42, of Frederick. Erin Martinez also was critically injured in the blast, and their 11-year-old son, who was injured, was treated and released from a hospital. The couple’s daughter was not at home at the time.

The well had a series of owners, and since 2014 had been owned and operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC). The Texas company, one of Colorado’s biggest energy companies, said last week it would shut down the three wells it operates in the Oak Meadows subdivision and sever the one-inch flow lines at all of its more than 3,000 vertical wells in the state.

The state’s first deadline for inspections of oil and gas wells across Colorado was Tuesday, May 30, a second deadline for additional work is June 30.

Michael Edwards, the senior director for investor relations with Denver’s PDC Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PDCE), one of the five biggest oil and gas companies working in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin north and east of Denver, said Tuesday that the company met the May 30 deadline for inspections and filed its report with the COGCC on Saturday, May 27.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2017/05/30/deadline-day-for-oil-and-gas-inspections-in.html