U.S. rules would allow ‘seismic air guns’ in search for offshore oil, gas

[jsr]

Source: Washington Post

The federal government proposed rules Thursday that would allow the use of “seismic air guns” and other methods of exploring the ocean floor off a huge swath of the southeastern United States for the first time in decades.

The move is seen as a step toward a possible battle over offshore drilling for oil and gas there in the latter part of the decade or beyond.

Nine companies have applied for permits to use the loud devices to determine how much fossil fuel lies beneath the water in a 330,000-square-mile area from the mouth of Delaware Bay to just south of Cape Canaveral, Fla., according to Tommy P. Beaudreau, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which issued Thursday’s environmental impact statement.

Conservationists have questioned the need to explore for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean and contend that blasts from the air guns harm marine life.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-rules-would-allow-seismic-air-guns-in-search-for-offshore-oil-gas/2014/02/27/68533a0c-9ffb-11e3-a050-dc3322a94fa7_story.html

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[Javaman]

1. What could possibly go wrong? followed soon by...

"nobody expected this!"

[theHandpuppet]

4. +100

You can bet on it.

[SamKnause]

2. Decisions decisions

I wonder if the Obama administration will side with the big oil companies ?

I think we all know the answer.

[4dsc]

3. they know about peak oil

so what is a society to do? We need to keep finding oil because there is no alternative.

[theHandpuppet]

5. There have to be incentives and investment

Those profiting from oil have made sure we will keep needing it.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. NO