The BP Gulf oil spill is inspiring re-evaluation of how to prevent low-probability but highly catastrophic environmental risks. In Oregon, the terminals and pipelines proposed for handling imported liquified natural gas are getting a very hard look.
"The Center for Biological Diversity Thursday filed a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Minerals Management Service to strike down the agency's exemption of 49 Gulf of Mexico drilling projects from all environmental review."
"The Obama administration scrambled to respond on Sunday after the failure of the latest effort to kill the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. But administration officials acknowledged the possibility that tens of thousands of gallons of oil might continue pouring out until August, when two relief wells are scheduled to be completed."
"President Barack Obama Thursday rejected charges he was slow to respond to the Gulf of Mexico "tragedy" and clamped down on the oil industry, as he tried to contain political blowback from the crisis."
"MIAMI — Facing more than 100 lawsuits after its Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed 11 workers and threatened four coastal states, oil giant BP is asking the courts to place every pre-trial issue in the hands of a single federal judge in Houston. That judge, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, has traveled the world giving lectures on ethics for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, a professional association and research group that works with BP and other oil companies. The organization pays his travel expenses."
"Colorado Democrat Diana DeGette withdrew a proposed amendment today from House water legislation that would have expanded regulation of a controversial oil and gas production technique some say has contributed to groundwater pollution."
"The smart grid of the future will require new rivers of data flowing between utilities and customers. But who will carry the data, and how will it be channeled?"
"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says in a report to be delivered to the White House on Thursday that he will not consider applications for permits to drill in the Arctic until 2011. Shell Oil is poised to begin exploratory drilling this summer on leases as far as 140 miles offshore."
"Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine was a 'ticking time bomb' where workers feared for their lives but worried that complaints about growing safety problems would cost them their jobs, members of a congressional committee heard Monday."
"Greenhouse gas emissions from medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks and buses will be regulated by the federal government for the first time beginning in model year 2014 under an official Memorandum issued [May 21] by President Barack Obama."
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