Greenpeace Alerts Invasion of Preservation Areas

Editor’s Note: From CRE Brazil http://cre.org.br/

Greenpeace, Brazil has just launched the atlas, Mar, Petróleo e Biodiversidade – A geografia do conflito (Ocean, Oil and Biodiversity – The Geography of the Conflict). On crossing data from the Ministries of the Environment and Mines and Energy, the NGO found that 44% of the Brazilian waters are considered a priority area for preservation, but only 2.57% of the total has been transformed into federal preservation units. However, 8.77% of the area that should be transformed into protected biodiversity zones has become areas for oil and gas exploration.

Happy Birthday Wishes to the Data Quality Act

December 21, 2010 marks the tenth anniversary of the Data Quality Act (DQA), also known as the Information Quality Act, 44 U.S.C § 3516, note.

The DQA has deep roots developed over nearly a half-century as the result of a seed planted during the Johnson Administration which germinated in the Nixon Administration, was watered by the Carter Administration and whose product was harvested by the Reagan Administration, made available to the public in the Bush I Administration and subsequently enhanced by the Clinton Administration and promoted by the Bush II and Obama Administrations. See: http://thecre.com/ombpapers/SystemsAnalysisGroup.htm and http://thecre.com/quality/20010924_fedinfotriangle.html

Report: New National Ocean Council process to be ‘fair and transparent’

CRE’s Recommendation to BOEMRE for the OCS Scientific Committee

CRE recommends that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) select an individual to the Outer Continental Shelf  Scientific Committee who has “with demonstrated expertise on the Data Quality Act (DQA). ”

CRE explains that “BOEMRE’s commitment to maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility and integrity of scientific information must be reflected through the selection of individual with the same dedication to the quality of scientific data.”

CRE’s complete comments are attached below.

Coastal Resources Management Council Chief: Wind farm appears to comply with RI plan

From: Providence Journal

Grover Fugate, the executive director of the state Coastal Resources Management Council, said that preliminary information Deepwater Wind gave him about its new 200-turbine proposal appeared to show that it is consistent with the recently approved ocean zoning plan, known as the Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), that his agency coordinated.

It is important that Deepwater’s proposal complies, because Rhode Island and Massachusetts agreed to use the SAMP as the guide to development in the waters where the project would be located.

Confusion lingers for council about new ocean policy

By Andrew Jensen
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Questions about a new national ocean policy remain, even after a visit to Alaska from the assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Larry Robinson, the No. 2 at NOAA, held a town hall meeting Nov. 12 in Anchorage about the new National Ocean Council formed through an executive order signed by President Barack Obama July 19.

Robinson also met separately with members of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which expressed concerns about its role under the new national ocean policy.

Offshore Drilling Policy Reversed

The Washington Post

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic Coast through 2017, reversing two key policy changes the president embraced in late March.

The revised Interior Department drilling plan, which took industry officials and many environmentalists by surprise, will also delay the next two lease sales in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. It marks a sharp political shift by the White House – yanking concessions to conservatives and oil companies – in the wake of the massive BP oil spill and the collapse of comprehensive climate legislation.