Daily Archives: August 10, 2017

CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) The first of several public input sessions on the ability to pursue steps toward offshore drilling was held at the Crystal Coast Civic Center Wednesday night.

The room was so full of people looking to speak there was standing room only.

The topic of offshore drilling always brings controversy and Wednesdays session was no different.

The Department of Environmental Quality is hosting this event in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump. The order would allow for the expansion of offshore drilling.

David McGowan spoke in support of the possibility to expand offshore drilling to include the North Carolina coast.

McGowan said, This is the first step in an 8 to 10 year process, before we would ever see any type of drilling activity off our coast.

McGowan said he believes offshore drilling could bring open doors for the state.

We believe the North Carolina has a tremendous opportunity from an economic standpoint, from an energy security standpoint, even from a national security standpoint, to play a role in supporting our domestic energy revolution, said McGowan.

McGowan said the United States produces 10 million barrels of oil a day but consumes nearly 20 million.

Were still importing a lot of product in many of that from places that dont always have our best interest in mind, said McGowan.

Supporters were met with strong opposition at the event from people like Larry Baldwin.

More importantly, Im here from a personal standpoint, and just what it means to protect this water, said Baldwin. This water is a resource it was given to us to take care of not to take advantage of.

Baldwin recognized the meeting is just a preliminary step but says there no room for drilling along the Crystal Coast.

Baldwin said, The process of figuring out where oil and gas is out here is going to have as much an impact as an oil spill could.

Like many who spoke, Baldwin lives and works in Morehead City and said these waters mean too much to him to risk.

You can throw the numbers out there that you want, you can throw all the numbers as to what the benefits are, the risk does not outweigh those benefits they really its not worth the risk, said Baldwin.

This is the first of three public comment sessions.

The Department of Environmental Quality will compile all of the responses and ultimately decide whether or not to pursue further steps in what could be a decades long process.

Read the original here:

Offshore drilling debate comes to the east - WNCT

With the possibility of oil and natural gas exploration off the Atlantic seaboard back on the table, South Carolinas coastal leaders find themselves once again taking a stand to prevent drilling in local waters.

In April, President Donald Trump signed his America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, which would open up the 94 percent of offshore areas that the federal government has closed to energy exploration and production for the first time in more than 30 years. With the administrations push to expedite a new leasing program for the national outer continental shelf beginning in 2019, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is now accepting public comments regarding the possibility of bringing the offshore energy industry to South Carolina.

Faced with an Aug. 17 deadline to provide public input, state and local officials rallied in Mt. Pleasant Monday to ask that citizens voice their opposition to such a proposal and encourage Gov. Henry McMaster to do the same.

The whole idea that were spending time and energy going out there and trying to find out what we already know that its not out there, a finite resource and not dedicating our efforts to doing something that is long-term and sustainable to me is a fight worth having. And I invite all of you to join with me, said Charleston City Councilman Mike Seekings during the rally hosted by advocacy groups Dont Drill Lowcountry, Stop Offshore Drilling in the Atlantic (SODA), Coastal Conservation League, Oceana, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and Southern Environmental Law Center.

While Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pushed Trumps new energy strategy by saying that the more aggressive approach would cement our nations position as a global energy leader, the evidence that is currently available suggests that the Southeast coast will likely not by the key to furthering any energy supremacy.

Current estimates of resources off the Atlantic coast from BOEM project 414,000 million barrels of oil and 1.78 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the South Atlantic region stretching from South Carolina to Florida. This roughly equates to 9 percent of the estimated oil supply along the entire Atlantic region and less than 5 percent of potential gas resources.

The point of contention with these estimates is that they are partially derived from the a period of seismic testing and exploratory drilling conducted in the late 70 and early 80s. Modern advancements in exploratory and drilling methods allow for deeper wells and the possibility of gaining a better understanding of what resources are available off the coast.

Of specific concern to opponents of offshore energy exploration is that the results of any seismic testing that would be permitted off the Southeast coast would not be available to the public. This means that little oversight would be possible in making the decision to risk South Carolinas booming coastal tourism industry against the possibility of untapped resources.

This region, the Lowcountry, is really a brand. Its a very valuable brand, and it needs to be protected. When you talk about brands, it really is key to our quality of life here in the Lowcountry, and in the Lowcountry our quality of life is really dependant on our natural environment. So we need to protect that at all costs, said state Rep. William Cogswell, who cosponsored a bill from fellow House member Leon Stavrinakis that would prevent the state or any municipalities from approving plans to construct infrastructure used to transport offshore oil into the land and waters of South Carolina.

This bill coincides with another piece of proposed legislation introduced by Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, which calls for a 2018 statewide referendum on questions of whether or not the development of an offshore oil and natural gas industry should be permitted in South Carolina.

Cogswell was joined at Mondays rally by state Sen. Chip Campsen, whose district covers more than 80 miles of the South Carolina coast. According to Campsen, his primary reason for opposing offshore oil exploration and drilling is the potential impact that the industry would have on the shore.

The onshore infrastructure necessary to sustain offshore drilling is highly industrial, very extensive and expansive, and very unseemly, which is a kind way to put it, said Campsen, who later shared a phone conversation he had with Gov. McMaster following a fishing trip in the Ace Basin.

I want to tell you, and I have authorization to do this, I talked to the governor on my way back from tarpon fishing. He told me that he knows my position. I kind of restated it. And he told me that You go ahead and tell the crowd. He whole-heartedly agrees with my position, said Campsen. The truth is we have developed a land-use pattern on the coast of South Carolina that is wholly incompatible with the onshore infrastructure necessary to support oil.

See the article here:

Charleston-area leaders rally against offshore oil exploration; Gov. McMaster's stance against drilling affirmed - Charleston City Paper

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Talking Taxes: How to Bring Offshore Profits Home Wall Street Journal (subscription) U.S. companies are holding more than $2.6 trillion in profits across the globe and they haven't paid U.S. taxes on it. Why is so much money offshore, and how could the tax code be changed to bring it back? WSJ's tax reporter Richard Rubin dives in.

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Talking Taxes: How to Bring Offshore Profits Home - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Mike Antonuccis Union Report appears Wednesdays; see the full archive

Amid stagnating union membership rolls across the country, the American Federation of Teachers added 40,000 education employees into its ranks last week.

AFT reached an affiliation agreement with the Asociacin de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the exclusive bargaining agent for the islands public school teachers. It represents a unit larger than the Chicago Teachers Union.

But the affiliation is a unique one, characteristic of the difficult and often combative relationship between American unions and Puerto Ricos teachers.

For one thing, AFT and AMPR describe the new relationship as a trial affiliation of up to three years. This is an unprecedented arrangement in my experience. Second, AMPR will be charged national dues of only $1 per member per month. AFT affiliates on the U.S. mainland, by way of comparison, will pay $19.28 per member per month beginning in September. AMPR members dues will remain stable because their union pledged to pay AFTs fee from its own coffers. For its part, AFT pledged to provide AMPRs members with the same services it provides all other members.

AMPR became the bargaining agent for teachers in Puerto Rico in April 2016 after an election in which its rival, the Federacin de Maestros de Puerto Rico FMPR was banned from participation. The two unions have been battling since public-sector collective bargaining was enacted in Puerto Rico in 1999, even as Americas unions have treated the island like their own little Game of Thrones.

Back in 1999, AMPR was affiliated with the National Education Association and FMPR with AFT. FMPR won the first union representation election the right to negotiate the islands teachers contract giving AFT the upper hand and all but eliminating NEAs presence in Puerto Rico.

In 2003, a radical caucus won election to FMPR leadership and began disaffiliating from AFT. In what has since become standard operating procedure, AFT first sought to have the FMPR president removed from office, then, in 2005, attempted to establish a trusteeship over the union. This was met with massive defiance and protests that reached all the way to an AFT conference in Washington, D.C.

After losing several court battles and failing to form a competing organization, AFT effectively surrendered, disaffiliating FMPR as if FMPR had not already disaffiliated itself.

FMPRs victory was short-lived, however. After it authorized an illegal strike, the government of Puerto Rico decertified the union in 2008 and called a new representation election. With FMPR legally sidelined, AMPR rose from its ashes, assisted by a new affiliation with the Service Employees International Union.

Teachers were given the choice of AMPR or no union, and 55 percent of them voted for no union. That ended SEIUs involvement, and left the islands teachers without any union representation.

Labor militancy continued, however with both FMPR and AMPR participating in strikes and protests in 2014, but it wasnt until last year that the government allowed a new representation election to be held. With FMPR banned from participating, AMPR easily won.

AFT gets a morale boost from taking AMPR under its wing, but not much else. Puerto Rico doesnt permit the collection of agency fees. All union dues are voluntary. Even if every teacher were to join, the annual take for AFT would be less than $500,000, not enough to cover the cost of three union staffers.

Perhaps AFT members will think it is worthwhile to subsidize union operations in Puerto Rico, but AFT isnt likely to ask them.

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Link:

Analysis: Teachers Union Adds 40000 Offshore Members While Labor Rolls Stagnate at Home - The 74