Ocean Zone News Blog

From: Penn Energy

HOUSTON, Jan. 12 — The report by a presidential commission studying last year’s Macondo well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico calls for overhaul both of the oil and gas industry’s safety culture and of offshore regulation.

Published Jan. 11, the report to President Barack Obama from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling faults regulations in place when the Macondo well blew out on Apr. 20, destroying the Transocean Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible drilling rig and killing 11 workers. It also excoriates the industry.

(SitNews) Fairbanks, Alaska – In a speech before hundreds attending the Rotary Club of Fairbanks, Governor Sean Parnell today focused on how recent federal restrictions have crippled resource development and blocked jobs for Alaskans. From the offshore drilling moratorium, to ocean zoning, to the effort to lock up the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the governor outlined numerous ways Washington is encroaching on Alaska’s sovereignty in developing its natural resources.

“What the federal government owns, it regulates. And, what it doesn’t own, it seeks to control – by regulatory mandate,” Governor Parnell said. “For our economy, it’s death by a thousand cuts.”

From: Homer Tribune

By Laine Welch
Alaska’s seafood industry worked hard this year to ramp up its message to policy makers, especially those from rail belt regions who tend to overlook the industry’s economic significance.

How important is the seafood industry to Alaska and the nation? At a glance:   62 percent of all U.S. seafood landings come from Alaska … 96 percent of all wild- caught salmon come from Alaska …  Seafood is by far Alaska’s #1 export, valued at nearly $2 billion (next in line:  zinc and lead at $785 million) … Alaska ranks 9th  in the world in terms of global seafood production.

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