Ocean Zone News Blog

The Huffington Post

For the first half of the 19th century New Bedford, Massachusetts was known as “The City that Lit the World”. Processing whale oil for fuel and candles made this city wealthy, famous and envied far and wide. But discovery of petroleum on land turned the tide on whale oil commerce, the country moved on to a new fuel source and an industry was born. Back then, not much was known about the potential for human impacts on a global scale. We now understand the effects that whaling had on some of the most majestic species in our ocean as well as the power of fossil fuels to alter our planet’s climate.

ConocoPhillips says offshore development would take years, cost multibillions

Kristen Nelson — Petroleum News

A natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to market isn’t the only multibillion-dollar project that could lie in Alaska’s future.

Similarly expensive and challenged would be getting Chukchi Sea oil discoveries, assuming oil is found in commercial quantities, to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

Geoff Haddad, ConocoPhillips’ vice president for Alaska exploration and land, said it would be a nice problem to have.

From: SeaLife Ships Blog

Ocean Zoning – a Useful New Book

I just acquired a copy  of Dr Tundi Agardy’s new book “Ocean Zoning: Making Marine Management More Effective”.  This is a very timely publication given the new US National Ocean Policy (see http://sealifeceo.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-national-ocean-policy-perfect.html) and given the initiative to establish a series of Regional Ocean Partnerships in nine regions of the USA (Alaska is one region) that will give effect to that policy (see http://www.csc.noaa.gov/funding/PDFs/noaa-nos-csc-2011-2002721-ffo-report.pdf).

The Department of Energy (DOE), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), and the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently announced eight joint research awards totaling nearly $5M to support the responsible siting and permitting of offshore wind energy facilities and ocean energy generated from waves, tides, currents and thermal gradients. This critical research will address key information gaps regarding the potential environmental effects of renewable ocean energy. This collaborative, interagency effort will help lay the foundation for a clean, renewable offshore energy industry that will diversify our nation’s energy mix, enhance our energy security, create American manufacturing jobs, and reduce carbon emissions.