Obama’s recent announcement only approved seismic studies to determine where
resources might be located---it’s entirely separate from decisions about resource
development, which the plan authorizes---but it’s perceived as a pro-industry move, which
makes disad links non-unique
HC 7-18 – Houston Chronicle, 7/18/14, “Seismic rift: Obama splits with environmentalists on Atlantic oil
exploration,” http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Seismic-rift-Obama-splits-withenvironmentalists-5631901.php
The Obama administration on Friday green-lighted a plan to allow the oil industry to search for possible oil and gas under
Atlantic waters using air guns and sonic blasts that environmentalists say can harm marine life.
Although geophysical research companies still have to apply for individual permits to conduct seismic studies along the
south- and mid-Atlantic coast and undergo more rigorous environmental scrutiny of their specific plans, the Interior Department's formal decision
opens the door for the activity early next year.
It also helps pave the way for possible drilling off the East Coast in the 2020s by giving the industry a new chance to
prove the oil and gas potential of the area as the Obama administration assembles a five-year plan for selling offshore
energy leases beginning in late 2017.
Nine companies have told the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management they want to do the work, which would represent the
first geophysical data collection along the East Coast in more than three decades.
Environmentalists accused the administration of caving to the oil industry by formalizing an approach that would impose
modest limitations on the seismic research instead of mandating more rigorous safeguards or barring the activity altogether.
"For more than 30 years, the Atlantic coast has been off-limits to offshore drilling,'' said Claire Douglass, campaign director for the
conservationist group Oceana. "Our government appears to be folding to the pressure of Big Oil and its big money."
Michael Jasny, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Marine Mammal Protection Project, called seismic exploration "a gateway
drug to offshore drilling."
But the oil industry didn't get everything it wanted .
Wildlife concerns
The American Petroleum Institute, the National Ocean Industries Association and other groups were unable to persuade the Interior Department
to scale back proposed time-outs to watch for animals before starting testing and requirements that companies shut down activities when dolphins
and other animals are nearby.
The petroleum institute has called those restrictions "arbitrary and unnecessary," asserting they were based on flawed projections about the
number of animals that could be hurt.
"Operators already take great care to protect wildlife, and the best science and decades of experience prove that there is no danger to marine
mammal populations,'' API's upstream director, Erik Milito, said Friday.
"Restrictions that have no scientific basis can easily discourage exploration, private investment and job creation. Regulators should rely only on
sound science when setting permit requirements."
Other limitations formalized Friday include closing access to the migratory routes of the endangered North Atlantic right whale and prohibiting
multiple seismic surveys from being conducted simultaneously.
The administration stopped short of requiring companies to use still-developing, quieter technologies for mapping what lies below the seabed.
Walter Cruikshank, acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said the agency relied on public comments, scientific research
and other evidence in developing the safeguards, first outlined in February.
"We are taking every step we think is reasonable to try and put those protections in place while still allowing surveys to occur," Cruikshank told
reporters on a conference call.
Sound makes maps
The bureau's plan for seismic research is limited to waters along seven states, from Delaware to Florida.
Seismic research generally is conducted with compressed air guns that produce loud, periodic blasts underwater. After the sound waves penetrate
the seafloor and bounce back, they are captured by long arrays of sensors towed behind seismic vessels. The resulting data is used to produce
detailed, three-dimensional maps that reveal underground geological features and potential reservoirs.
Conservationists say the pulses of sound can injure marine life that are especially reliant on their hearing for navigation, including the roughly
500 North Atlantic right whales still estimated to be alive.
"These dynamite-like blasts ... are loud enough to kill small organisms like fish eggs and larvae at close ranges and can disrupt the behavior of
large animals like whales and dolphins from up to 100 miles away,'' Oceana's Douglass said.
Geophysical survey firms say some of the restrictions could be expensive, forcing them to halt activity and then spend potentially a half day or
more repositioning sensor arrays before resuming tests.
Although the oil industry uses seismic studies to look for potential subterranean pockets of crude and gas, the geological and geophysical research
covered by the Interior Department's decision also helps identify sand and gravel that can be harvested for restoring coasts. And, increasingly, the
data helps in the planning of offshore renewable energy installations, including decisions about where to install wind turbines.
decision does not authorize any specific geological and geophysical
activities ; individual companies pursuing the work still would have to win permits not just from the ocean energy
bureau but also the National Fisheries Service.
Cruikshank stressed that Friday's
The government's nod to seismic testing also does
not dictate any future decisions on oil and gas
drilling
in the region, he said.
Industry representatives and government officials suggested that Friday's decision could lead to individual seismic studies early next year. But
conservationists have threatened legal action, potentially slowing the timeline.
The administration has been explicit that the seismic testing decision does not dictate the
likelihood of future drilling at all---and even the testing program is too restrictive
Ben Geman 7-18 – Energy & Environment Correspondent, National Journal, 7/18/14, “Did Obama Just Signal
That He'll Open the Atlantic Coast to Drilling?,” http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/did-obama-just-signal-thathe-ll-open-the-atlantic-coast-to-drilling-20140718
Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management defended the seismic-testing decision, and a senior official said
testing may begin as soon as early next year. Friday's decision doesn't approve any permits but rather sets out a
framework for how Interior will govern the process.
"The [Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] decision reflects a carefully analyzed and balanced approach that will
allow us to increase our understanding of potential offshore resources while protecting the human, marine, and
coastal environments," said Walter D. Cruickshank, acting head of the agency.
Opponents of oil-and-gas development fear that the plan is a step toward allowing companies to start drilling off the
Atlantic Coast.
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said he's preparing a letter to the White House with some other Florida
lawmakers that calls the seismic testing plan "the first major step toward opening the Atlantic Ocean to offshore
drilling." The letter also calls the testing dangerous to marine mammals and fisheries. Democratic Sen. Edward
Markey of Massachusetts had a similar reaction.
But while the framework announced Friday paves the way for new testing, Cruickshank insisted that it does not
telegraph a future decision to open up the Atlantic Coast to drilling . Interior is in the early stages of
crafting its 2017-22 offshore lease sale plan.
In 2010 President Obama announced plans to lease drilling blocs off the mid- and South Atlantic coast in the 201217 offshore program, but backed off after the BP oil spill. The oil industry is lobbying for access to the region in the
2017-22 plan that's under development.
Oil-industry groups welcome the chance to conduct seismic testing but said they fear the process will be too
restrictive . "We remain concerned this process will be hindered by unnecessary hurdles lacking scientific
justification," said Jeff Vorberger, a senior official with the National Ocean Industries Association.