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Oil Spill from Katrina - NOAA
Some call the Gulf our nation’s energy coast, while others call it the nation’s energy sacrifice zone. It is undeniable that the Eastern Gulf has shouldered damaging and environmentally careless energy development in the past, and is the primary domestic target area for new development. From liquefied natural gas terminals to oil & gas drilling in the outer continental shelf, the Gulf bears a heavy burden. But the burden does bring benefits, from economic activity to the fantastic fishing around offshore rigs.
The Gulf region is well aware of the true environmental costs associated with the world’s reliance on oil & gas: the devastation of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, oil spills, refinery pollution, sea level rise, and increasingly intense hurricane seasons.
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Hurricane Spills
The toll on the Gulf coast’s energy infrastructure from the 2005 hurricane season was staggering. The most up-to-date totals for oil spilled tops 11 million gallons, more than Exxon’s estimate of the Valdez release (10.8 million gallons). Over 150 platforms were destroyed, damaged, or moved hundreds of miles. Four-hundred fifty-seven pipelines, some that were originally built in wetlands or on the coast, were damaged from exposure to open-ocean conditions — for which they were not designed— due to coastal erosion. Shell’s Mars platform, their crown jewel rig, was down for over eight months, representing the largest single source of natural gas in the Gulf. Murphy Oil added to St. Bernard Parish’s devastation by spilling over 1 million gallons of oil into the community. BP just admitted that one of their Gulf wells continues to leak, calling into question whether their operations in the Gulf are as negligent as those in Prudhoe Bay, AK. In total, the hurricanes of 2005 cut the nation’s refining capacity by 29%, and necessitated over $30 billion in repairs to the oil and gas infrastructure of the Gulf.
Despite this destruction and the fact that increased hurricane activity and the effects of global warming put the oil and gas infrastructure at increased risk of future damage, there continues to be no rules ensuring that platforms built off-shore can withstand category 4 and 5 storms, and the industry has shown no interest in moving on-shore infrastructure such as refineries and tank farms out of high-risk coastal areas.
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Oil Impacts Assistance News
With the passage of the Coastal Impacts Assistance Program by the U.S. Congress in 2005 and the Gulf Energy Security Act in 2006, Gulf energy producing states are finally in a position to fund projects to restore coastal wetlands that have been damaged by oil and gas activity. Will these projects be prioritized, or will federal funds instead be directed to pork barrel projects?
Lengthy approval process holds back coastal projects. New Orleans Times Picayune
$48 M Allocated to Texas KGBT 4 Harlingen, TX
Louisiana to get $255 Baton Rouge Daily Advocate
Mississippi Coast will get $61 M Jackson Clarion Ledger
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Mercury
Pioneer to go Mercury Free!
The St. Gabriel, Louisiana facility is the lone chlorine plant in the Gulf that continues to use outdated technology which emits massive amounts of mercury. Twelve miles outside of Louisiana's largest city, Baton Rouge, Pioneer finally decided to follow the chlorine industry trend of switch to the energy-saving, mercury-free, membrane cell technology. In a move which will reduce Louisiana's mercury emissions by about 27%, Pioneer announced recently that they will switch their St. Gabriel chlorine plant to the industry standard, mercury-free process by 2008.
This decision comes after a long-fought campaign by GRN and led by GRN-member groups LEAN, Louisiana Audubon Council, Oceana and other conservation groups urging the switch, and after a recent GRN action alert which generated close to 2,000 e-mails to Pioneer.
Thanks to everyone who clicked for a mercury-free Gulf.
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