Right Whales Are The Right Whale to Save – Just Ask Vineyard Wind

Right Whales Are The Right Whale to Save – Just Ask Vineyard Wind

There are fewer than 415 North Atlantic Right Whales remaining with only 100 females of breeding age left in the population. This is one of the most endangered species on the planet, thanks to man-made threats like ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. According to the U.S. Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Beth Allgood, “There may be only five years remaining to save these whales. This is one of the most pressing conservation challenges of our time.”

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Trump Administration Allows 1,700 Safety Exceptions For Offshore Drilling Operations

Trump Administration Allows 1,700 Safety Exceptions For Offshore Drilling Operations

The Trump Administration has allowed 1700 “exceptions” of the “Well Control Rule” that the Obama Administration put in place in 2016 to improve drilling safety as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Today, in a hearing on Capitol Hill, the Interior Department defended these actions saying that the exceptions were granted only if the requester demonstrated that the exception to the rule was equally protective. 

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Funding Well May Be Running Dry For Frackers

Funding Well May Be Running Dry For Frackers

According to The Wall Street Journal, fracking companies are seeing their sources of capital on Wall Street dry up as investors are looking elsewhere given that many of the frackers have been operating at a loss for more than a decade.  The lack of capital to keep these companies liquid is forcing them to cut costs and plan for slower growth.  This is particularly true for small companies with lots of debt, but it is also happening to larger companies that are desperately trying to meet earnings targets set by their Wall Street lenders. 

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Environmental Groups Seek To Block Seismic Testing in the Atlantic

Environmental Groups Seek To Block Seismic Testing in the Atlantic

As part of their challenge to bar the government from drilling for oil and gas off the southeastern coast, a coalition of environmental groups asked a federal judge in South Carolina to force the government to suspend seismic airgun blast testing, which are used to deposits of oil and gas under the sea floor, until the case can be fully heard in court.  They are challenging the government’s permits, which would allow for the drilling to harm and even possibly kill of a number of marine mammals, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, which is on the verge of extinction. 

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Drill Baby Drill In the Everglades

Drill Baby Drill In the Everglades

The Florida Everglades may soon be the site of new oil and gas drilling operations.  A Miami real estate developer has, after a four-year legal battle, received a permit to drill an exploratory oil well in the Everglades, just west of populous Broward County suburbs.

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Protests Against Drilling in ANWR Dominate Public Meeting

Protests Against Drilling in ANWR Dominate Public Meeting

Last week, the Interior Department held a public meeting in Fairbanks to hear their comments and concerns about plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.  The agency brought scientists who were there to explain the environmental impact of the project and then take testimony from members of the public. 

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