***BREAKING NEWS…SALAZAR MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO BARROW AND ANCHORAGE!***

***Alaska Dispatch Story***Barrow Details***Anchorage Media Conference Details***

(This Administration Has Treated Alaska Very Poorly.  Activities Affecting Alaska Are Opaque And An Affront to Both Due Process and Common Courtesy.  -dh)

We Urge Readers to Follow Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) Coverage

Michael BromwichCEA Announcement:  On Tuesday, September 7th, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) Director Michael R. Bromwich (NGP Photo) and other US Dept of Interior officials will be in Houston to hear expert panelists discuss the Obama Administration’s offshore oil and gas drilling plans — including views on the current moratorium.  (CommentaryEvery one of our hundreds of Gulf Coast readers — particularly elected officials — should consider a drive to Houston for the meeting next Tuesday.  How many realize that this one appointed bureaucrat will advise the appointed Secretary of the Interior on all aspects of OCS moratoria, permitting policy, lease sales and lease sale conditions?  And, how many correctly conclude that this one man has been given the power to change Texas, all the gulf states, and the standard of living for all Americans?  I think I see complacency beginning to retreat in the face of outrage.  I hope so.  Rise up.  See our coverage of last week’s Anchorage meeting.  Oh, and watch out for a potential, crafty outcome: removing the formal moratoria but establishing such a weight of new access restrictions and permit requirements that de facto moratoria effectively stop OCS momentum until the national leadership is replaced.  In Anchorage, Bromwich said, "There is no actual or ‘de facto’ moratorium on shallow water drilling".  On June 23, Secretary Salazar said in an Appropriations Committee meeting in answer to questioning by Senator Lisa Murkowski that the moratorium does apply to Alaska, even though Alaska’s OCS programs involve shallow water activity in less that 200′.  Also note that Obama’s Corps of Engineers is strangling development within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska; the Obama Administration’s EPA has withheld critical OCS permits; Obama’s NOAA is using the ESA to shut down access to prospective areas; the Obama White House is creating a way to zone the oceans–which could affect all forms of commerce/use of oceans and even of waterways that feed the oceans.  In short, this is a bigger problem than just the Bromwich moratorium issue.  Surely, the foxes are in the hen house.  The BOEM meeting next week–as critical and life-changing as it could be–is just one small part of a much larger challenge to America’s very survival.     -dh)

Coastal communities, affected businesses and local governments have not been given sufficient time to participate in previous public meetings hosted by BOEM and make the Administration aware of public concerns.  It is important for Houstonians to turn-out and show BOEM Director Bromwich that it is time to lift the ban on Gulf development, spur economic opportunity and get this region and the nation moving again.  It is vitally important that Elected-Officials contact the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to request an opportunity to speak and play a role in the Forum.
 
At a recent Forum in Anchorage, more than 400 concerned citizens attended the BOEM forum and many Elected-Officials asked for an opportunity to speak.   This was the largest turn-out of any of the DOI forums around the country.  And DOI took note.
 
Please tell your colleagues and Elected-Officials (State, Local, Federal) about this Forum and urge their participation.
 
When:  September 7th, 2010
Time:   Doors open at 8:00 a.m.
Where:  Houston Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1700 Smith Street, Houston
 
A copy of the DOI Announcement is provided below.
 
 THE BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT,
REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT
Office of Public Affairs
 
Media Advisory
 
 

***BREAKING NEWS…SALAZAR MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO BARROW AND ANCHORAGE!***

***Alaska Dispatch Story***Barrow Details***Anchorage Media Conference Details***

(This Administration Has Treated Alaska Very Poorly.  Activities Affecting Alaska Are Opaque And An Affront to Both Due Process and Common Courtesy.  -dh)

We Urge Readers to Follow Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) Coverage

CEA Announcement:  On Tuesday, September 7th, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) Director Michael R. Bromwich (NGP Photo) and other US Dept of Interior officials will be in Houston to hear expert panelists discuss the Obama Administration’s offshore oil and gas drilling plans — including views on the current moratorium.  (CommentaryEvery one of our hundreds of Gulf Coast readers — particularly elected officials — should consider a drive to Houston for the meeting next Tuesday.  How many realize that this one appointed bureaucrat will advise the appointed Secretary of the Interior on all aspects of OCS moratoria, permitting policy, lease sales and lease sale conditions?  And, how many correctly conclude that this one man has been given the power to change Texas, all the gulf states, and the standard of living for all Americans?  I think I see complacency beginning to retreat in the face of outrage.  I hope so.  Rise up.  See our coverage of last week’s Anchorage meeting.  Oh, and watch out for a potential, crafty outcome: removing the formal moratoria but establishing such a weight of new access restrictions and permit requirements that de facto moratoria effectively stop OCS momentum until the national leadership is replaced.  In Anchorage, Bromwich said, "There is no actual or ‘de facto’ moratorium on shallow water drilling".  On June 23, Secretary Salazar said in an Appropriations Committee meeting in answer to questioning by Senator Lisa Murkowski that the moratorium does apply to Alaska, even though Alaska’s OCS programs involve shallow water activity in less that 200′.  Also note that Obama’s Corps of Engineers is strangling development within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska; the Obama Administration’s EPA has withheld critical OCS permits; Obama’s NOAA is using the ESA to shut down access to prospective areas; the Obama White House is creating a way to zone the oceans–which could affect all forms of commerce/use of oceans and even of waterways that feed the oceans.  In short, this is a bigger problem than just the Bromwich moratorium issue.  Surely, the foxes are in the hen house.  The BOEM meeting next week–as critical and life-changing as it could be–is just one small part of a much larger challenge to America’s very survival.     -dh)

Coastal communities, affected businesses and local governments have not been given sufficient time to participate in previous public meetings hosted by BOEM and make the Administration aware of public concerns.  It is important for Houstonians to turn-out and show BOEM Director Bromwich that it is time to lift the ban on Gulf development, spur economic opportunity and get this region and the nation moving again.  It is vitally important that Elected-Officials contact the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to request an opportunity to speak and play a role in the Forum.
 
At a recent Forum in Anchorage, more than 400 concerned citizens attended the BOEM forum and many Elected-Officials asked for an opportunity to speak.   This was the largest turn-out of any of the DOI forums around the country.  And DOI took note.
 
Please tell your colleagues and Elected-Officials (State, Local, Federal) about this Forum and urge their participation.
 
When:  September 7th, 2010
Time:   Doors open at 8:00 a.m.
Where:  Houston Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1700 Smith Street, Houston
 
A copy of the DOI Announcement is provided below.
 
 THE BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT,
REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT
Office of Public Affairs
 
Media Advisory

 
Office of Public Affairs                                               News Media Contacts: 
For Immediate Release                                                Nicholas Pardi
August 31, 2010                                                          (202) 208-3985    



 
Director Bromwich to Host Forums in Texas and Mississippi to Discuss Deepwater Drilling Safety, Containment and Spill Response
 
Experts from Academia, Industry and Environmental Organizations
to Give Presentations
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) today announced that Director Michael R. Bromwich will hold the next two events in a series of fact-finding forums in Houston, Texas and Biloxi, Miss. the week of September 6, 2010.  The forums are designed to collect information and views about deepwater drilling safety reforms, well containment, and oil spill response, which Director Bromwich will consider in evaluating whether to recommend any modifications to the scope or duration of the deepwater drilling suspensions announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on July 12, 2010. 
 
During these forums, Director Bromwich will be briefed by panels of experts from academia, the environmental community, and the oil and gas industry on technical issues related to deepwater drilling and workplace safety, well containment, and oil spill response.  The forums also will provide an opportunity for input from federal, state and local leaders on these same issues.
 
The forums will be open to the public.  Members of the public will be encouraged to submit comments via forms provided at the forums, by mail or online. 
 
The eighth and final additional forum will be held in mid-September in Lafayette, La.
 
What:                          Forums on Offshore Drilling
 
Who:                           Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael R. Bromwich
 
When/Where:             September 7, 2010: Houston, Texas
                                               The Crowne Plaza Houston- Downtown
                                               1700 Smith St.
                                               Houston, TX 77002
                                  
                                               Doors open at 8 A.M., event begins at 9 A.M.
 
September 10, 2010: Biloxi, Miss.
Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center
2350 Beach Blvd.
Biloxi, Miss. 39531
 
Doors open at 8 A.M., event begins at 9 A.M.