{"id":504934,"date":"2010-04-01T23:11:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T03:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/apolloalliance.org\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2010-04-01T23:11:51","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T03:11:51","slug":"offshore-oil-drilling-tops-the-news-headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/504934","title":{"rendered":"Offshore Oil Drilling Tops the News Headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The big energy news in the U.S. this week was the Obama administration\u2019s announcement that it plans to expand offshore oil and gas exploration and development. According to the U.S. Department of Interior press release heralding the policy change<\/a>, \u201cThe Administration\u2019s strategy calls for: developing oil and gas resources in new areas, such as the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, more than 125 miles from Florida\u2019s coast; increasing oil and gas exploration in frontier areas, such as the Arctic Ocean and the Mid and South Atlantic Ocean; and protecting ocean areas that are simply too special to drill, such as Alaska\u2019s Bristol Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many environmental groups condemned the Obama administration\u2019s proposal. For example, Mike Brune, the new executive director of the Sierra Club, a key member of the Apollo Alliance, said in a statement posted to the group\u2019s websi<\/a>te, \u201cWe’re very disappointed to see important areas like the Arctic coast and the Mid and South Atlantic stay open to oil drilling. What we need is bold, decisive steps towards clean energy, like the new clean cars regulations announced this week–not more dirty, expensive offshore drilling. The oil industry already has access to drilling on millions of acres of America’s public lands and water. We don’t need to hand over our last protected pristine coastal areas just so oil companies can break more profit records.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Environmental Defense Fund, another key Apollo ally, released a statement<\/a> saying that additional offshore drilling is necessary to win political support in the Senate for a bipartisan climate and clean energy bill. EDF\u2019s National Climate Campaign Director Steve Cochran said, “Without comprehensive climate and energy legislation, the failed, narrow energy policies of the past will continue. We believe the President’s announcement demonstrates his continued commitment to work towards the bi-partisan majority that will be necessary to pass climate legislation in the Senate. The President has put forward his plans on offshore drilling after hearing from key Senators that it’s a necessary step to succeed in passing climate and energy legislation in the Senate. Now it’s time for the supporters of new drilling and an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy policy to step forward and support comprehensive legislation, including a limit on carbon pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

For additional discussion of the offshore oil and gas announcement, we recommend a New York Times blog post that features a debate over the proposal (What\u2019s Behind Obama\u2019s Drilling Plan?<\/a>) and the ever-informative Climate Progress blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But What About Offshore Wind Energy?
\n<\/strong>
\nAs Weekly Update readers know, the Apollo Alliance has been paying close attention to recent developments that raise concerns about where our country\u2019s wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energy systems will be manufactured. On Wednesday, Cape Wind<\/a>, the Massachusetts firm that is hoping to win approval for a wind farm in Nantucket Sound, announced that it would purchase 130 of its wind turbines from the German company Siemens Energy. Some parts of the turbines, like the foundations, will be manufactured in the United States, but most will be manufactured in Europe.<\/p>\n

Europe is far ahead of the United States in the area of offshore wind energy. In fact, eight European countries have already installed wind turbines off their shores, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Meanwhile, no offshore wind projects have yet been built in the United States, and it appears that the glacial speed at which U.S. policymakers have been moving on clean energy will soon impact whether the U.S. wins the manufacturing jobs that will be associated with offshore wind turbines.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now there isn\u2019t anybody manufacturing offshore wind turbines in the United States,\u201d said Mark Rodgers, Cape Wind\u2019s communications director. \u201cThe problem is, there\u2019s been no market here. What we\u2019re going to have to do to attract manufacturers to the U.S. is show that there\u2019s a market and have some of the first projects move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, last week, GE, one of America\u2019s top wind manufacturers,\u00a0 announced plans to invest more than $512 million to manufacture and engineer its next generation of wind turbines\u2014turbines specifically designed for offshore deployment\u2014not in the U.S., where such investments and the jobs they bring are desperately needed, but in Norway, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

The recent announcements by GE and Cape Wind are yet another reason why the U.S. Senate needs to quickly pass comprehensive federal clean energy and climate legislation that ramps up domestic clean energy demand and signals to businesses America\u2019s long-term commitment to cleaner technologies. They also show why we need the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act, Sen. Sherrod Brown\u2019s bill to support domestic clean energy manufacturing.<\/p>\n

While oil drilling off the U.S. coast got most of the media attention this week, the future of offshore wind energy\u2014and the manufacturing jobs that will be associated with it\u2014is an issue we can\u2019t afford to ignore. Stay tuned for a decision by the end of April on whether the federal government will allow the Cape Wind project to move forward.<\/p>\n

In other news \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

*This week Apollo sponsored a clean energy business roundtable in Kansas City, Missouri<\/strong> with U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver and clean energy business leaders. \u201cPolicies that drive clean energy demand are the key to getting our economy back on track and creating jobs for the people of Missouri,\u201d Rep. Cleaver said. Apollo also released a new poll at the event which showed that Missourians are strong believers in the opportunity for economic recovery posed by boosting investment in clean energy manufacturing. Fifty-seven percent of poll respondents said that investments in clean technologies will help revive the state\u2019s economy, while only 24 percent disagreed. Click here <\/a>to read a press release about the event and poll.<\/p>\n

*The Pew Charitable Trusts has published another excellent report about the clean energy economy.<\/strong> Who\u2019s Winning the Clean Energy Race?<\/a> documents the phenomenal growth of the global clean energy economy and analyzes the competitive positions of the G-20 countries in terms of their clean energy investments, installed renewable energy capacity and other factors. The report finds that China led the world in overall clean energy finance and investment in 2009, and, although the U.S. came in second, ten G-20 member nations devoted a greater percentage of their gross domestic product to clean energy than did the United States in 2009.<\/p>\n

*Join the U.S. Climate Action Network in its \u201cI (heart) clean air\u201d campaign<\/strong> by posting photos and sharing stories about why you (heart) clean air. You can post photos and stories to the Clean Air Act Facebook fan page<\/a> between now and Earth Day. Then U.S. CAN will send them to Congress to demonstrate that Americans everywhere appreciate how the Clean Air Act protects the air we breathe and improves our daily lives through better air quality and a healthier environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The big energy news in the U.S. this week was the Obama administration\u2019s announcement that it plans to expand offshore oil and gas exploration and development. According to the U.S. Department of Interior press release heralding the policy change, \u201cThe Administration\u2019s strategy calls for: developing oil and gas resources in new areas, such as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}