Tag Archives: oil spill

Chevron under fire over size of Brazil oil spill

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1328321713 31 Chevron under fire over size of Brazil oil spill

RIO DE JANEIRO – US energy giant Chevron drew fire from Brazilian officials amid conflicting accounts of the size of an oil spill at an offshore well it operated off Rio de Janeiro state.

Rio state’s Environment Secretary Carlos Minc questioned official accounts of the spill, saying the “accident must be bigger than what is being announced.”

“we are going to demand compensation for (the damage done) to birds, fish, dolphins and fishermen,” he told Globo television. “The company must be punished in an exemplary manner.”

The well, which Chevron said began leaking on November 8, is near the Frade field located some 370 kilometers (230 miles) northeast of Rio de Janeiro, in an area that is a migratory route for whales and dolphins.

The National Petroleum Agency said an overflight of the area and underwater images showed that the spill has been “substantially reduced” since Wednesday when Chevron began a cementing operation to plug the well.

The agency said the oil slick “continues to move away from shore” and estimated that it was now 11 miles (18 kilometers) long and 4.5 miles square (11.8 kilometers square), down from 63 square miles (163 square kilometers) on Tuesday.

It estimated that between 200 and 330 barrels of oil have seeped into the sea since November 8. The energy ministry, for its part, said 220 to 230 barrels of oil were seeping into the ocean daily.

©AFP/National Petroleum Agency 

The National Petroleum Agency said the spill has been “substantially reduced”

Those estimates were contested by Greenpeace, which said satellite pictures showed a spill “10 times bigger,” and likely reached closer to 3,700 barrels a day.

Another environmental group, SkyTruth, said the most recent images it could obtain on November 12 show an oil slick spreading from the drilling location over an area of 2,379 square kilometers (920 square miles), with an estimated volume of 14,954 barrels of oil.

If the spill began midday on November 8, 24 hours before the group first observed it on satellite images, the spill rate would be at least 3,738 barrels per day — again more than 10 times larger than Chevron’s estimate — according to SkyTruth.

Chevron did not immediately return requests for comment.

“there is no doubt that an offense occurred. The spill results from the drilling activity,” said Fabio Scliar, head of the federal police’s environment department. “What interests me now is determining the responsibilities.”

Federal police are looking into the case.

©AFP / Luiza Castro 

Greenpeace said satellite pictures showed a spill “10 times bigger” than estimates

Greenpeace activists spilled black ink on the door of Chevron’s Rio office to protest the US energy giant’s drilling off the Brazilian coast.

“Chevron: your trash, our problem,” read a placard waved by an activist outside the Chevron office in central Rio.

The activists said they wanted more clarity on the cause of the spill.

They also wanted more details on Chevron plans to control the spill and reduce its impact on the biodiversity of the Rio state coast, a migration route for dolphins and various species of whales.

On Thursday, Chevron said cementing operations were underway “as part of its well plugging activities on an appraisal well located in the vicinity of the Frade field offshore Brazil.”

“there has never been any oil flow from the wellhead and current monitoring indicates oil from nearby seep lines on the ocean floor have reduced to infrequent droplets,” it added, saying it was monitoring the “substantially dissipated” oil sheen.

Greenpeace called for more “transparency” from Chevron and government agencies, saying they had provided “contradictory” information.

“The company is playing down the problem,” said Leandra Goncalves of Greenpeace, warning the oil slick could exceed 160 square kilometers (62 square miles). AFP reported.

Chevron under fire over size of Brazil oil spill

Bonga spill: Senate Committee satisfied with clean up

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Bonga spill: Senate Committee satisfied with clean up

The Senate Committee on Environment has expressed satisfaction with the prompt and effective way that the Shell Group responded on the Bonga oil spill, which occurred on December 20.

The Committee, led by its Chairman, Senator Bukola Saraki, gave the clean bill of health after the team inspected the oil facility which lies 120km Southwest of the Niger Delta, in a water depth of over 1,000m.

He told journalists that “lots of work has been done by Shell to contain the oil spill,” adding that such a prompt response is what is expected of other oil companies operating in Nigeria.

The Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCo, the operator of the facility said at the time of the incident that the spill occurred a tanker was loading oil, led to the shutdown of the 200,000 barrel per day Floating Production Storage Offloading facility.

Shell, Nigeria’s largest producer said a week after that it had successfully contained the spill but not before close to 40,000 barrels had leaked into the Atlantic, which forced

“The oil spill has now been dispersed and contained. We had five ships working to disperse it. it was dispersed over the weekend and that was completed before it hit the shore,” Precious Okolobo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman said in a statement.

“It did not wash up on the shore,” he said, adding that chemical dispersants had combined with natural dispersion to clear the spill.

But environmental groups, Environmental Rights Action, ERA, and Friends of the Earth Nigeria, FoEN, said in a statement on its website that local communities in Odioama in the Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta region had spotted suspected slicks from the Bonga spill near the coast.

The group said its monitors visited the Atlantic shoreline in the company of some local fish farmers on December 26, where spreading spill was sighted. “In the course of the visit, spreading slick was sighted close to the coastline of Odioama and along St. Nicholas.”

Confirming the other slick spill, Saraki said, “We have also witnessed a third party oil spill but we cannot say if it is from Bonga or not. The third party oil spill has reached the shore line and we want to appeal to the communities that are affected to allow for a proper investigation and test to be carried out in order to ascertain the source of the third oil spill. We want to ensure that as a committee that we bring home the best international standard in dealing with issues like this.”

The Vice Chairman of the committee, Prof Ben Ayade, noted that oil spills on the shoreline of the Niger Delta region are necessarily crude, as some of them are refined products, adding that Shell should be commended for responding promptly.

The early containment of the spill came as a big surprise to the industry especially as the Minister of Environment, Hajia Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, who visited Bonga on December 24, estimated that the clean up would last for six week.

“For a complete clean up, we are looking at six weeks and to put things under control. We have brought in experts and we currently have seven vessels, two air craft and two helicopters that are making use of dispersants to clean the massive oil spill at the Bonga deepwater offshore facility and to ensure that the spill does not reach the shore line,” she said.

Mailafia led a joint ministerial team comprising Shell; the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency,NOSDRA; Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA; Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS; Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, and other technical partners.

The minister also admitted that the spill will affect aquatic life, saying that measures were being taken to ensure that the spill does not reach the shore line. The minister, the Director-General, NOSDRA, Sir Peter Idabor, and the Deputy Director, NIMASA, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, flew offshore to review clean-up efforts on the spill.

The spill comes four months after a United Nations report criticised Shell and the Nigerian government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in the Niger Delta region, which it described as the world’s largest ever oil clean-up, costing an initial $1 billion and taking up to 30 years.

Bonga spill: Senate Committee satisfied with clean up

Fuel Fix » Federal judge ends BP’s probation for Alaska spill

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Fuel Fix » Federal judge ends BP’s probation for Alaska spill

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed prosecutors’ argument that a BP subsidiary violated its probation after an oil spill because of another spill on Alaska’s North Slope.

Judge Ralph Beistline also lifted BP Exploration (Alaska) inc.’s probation altogether.

BP had been convicted of negligent discharge of oil in 2007 for a 200,000-gallon spill on the North Slope a year earlier. There was another spill of 13,500 gallons in 2009.

Last month, government lawyers sought to have BP’s probation revoked for the latest spill, meaning the probation period could have been lengthened or the company could have faced additional penalties.

In his ruling, Beistline said the government failed to prove the company committed criminal negligence.

“We are pleased with the decision and appreciate the court’s attention,” BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said in an email. “We know that the privilege of working in Alaska comes with a responsibility to maintain high standards. we will continue our commitment to running safe and compliant operations.”

Emails seeking comment from the U.S. attorney’s office in Anchorage were not immediately returned.

Prosecutors said BP’s history of environmental crimes in Alaska began in February 2001 when it pleaded guilty to releasing hazardous materials at its Endicott facility on the North Slope. The company was fined $500,000, placed on probation for five years and ordered to create a nationwide environmental management program, prosecutors said.

The March 2006 spill of 200,000 gallons of crude was caused by corrosion, and BP’s leak detection system failed to notice it, they said.

The company’s guilty plea to a misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act in 2007 resulted in three years’ probation, a $12 million fine, and restitution and community service payments totaling $8 million to the state of Alaska and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Prosecutors contended BP violated the conditions of its probation by allowing the 2009 spill from an 18-inch pipe that moved oil, water and gas from drill pads to BP’s Lisburne Processing Center. That spill, prosecutors said, leaked 13,500 gallons of oil onto tundra and wetlands.

The government said it was similar to the 2006 spill because BP ignored alarms that warned of the pipe’s eventual rupture and leak. The 2009 spill also came after a similar pipe froze and ruptured in 2001, they said, and BP failed to put in place preventative measures that their own experts recommended.

But in his ruling, Beistline wrote: “The investigation concluded, based on the metallurgy report, that the pipeline rupture was not caused by corrosion or improper maintenance, but was caused by a sequence of circumstances, including cooling and warming of ambient temperature after the flow stopped, which led to the freezing of both water and hydrates. This ultimately resulted in increased gas pressure within the pipeline that caused the rupture. Why the flow slowed initially remains a mystery to all.”

Beistline said BP followed “accepted industry practices at all relevant times and could not have reasonably expected a blowout similar to the one that occurred on November 29, 2009. Further, the court concludes that once the freeze up was discovered, BP acted reasonably in addressing the problem.”He also said BP’s efforts to return the spill site to pre-spill conditions were “impressive.”

“An untrained observer would likely be unable to find any indication that a spill had occurred,” he wrote, adding there was no evidence that contaminants reached any nearby lakes or Prudhoe Bay.

Fuel Fix » Federal judge ends BP’s probation for Alaska spill

Necessity Of an Absorbent Spill Kit

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Necessity Of an Absorbent Spill Kit

If you are working in an environment where the possibilities of liquid spill are more, you need to have some preventive measures. thus, an absorbent and oil are considered as the preventive measures. Overall, you are required to focus on buying the appropriate and affordable absorbent. you must consider some vital aspects that will help you in making a perfect decision to buy the kit.

Need for Absorbent:

Initially, you need to consider the features of the. usually, all these kits are basically used for preventing the oil spill and leakage. With the help of absorbent, you can easily keep the environment and surroundings of your working safe and clean. is very imperative for preventing the accidents due to oil spills Moreover, you can be safe from the hazardous oils and liquids It enhances the performance of the employees within the organization as they will perform more efficiently once they feel secured. Usages of absorbent are not limited up to the organization but it is also effective to avoid the environmental damages.

When it comes to buy the absorbent, you need to consider some points ranging from your preferences to the offered services of the store. however, most of the considerable points are related to selecting a store.

Initially, you have to prepare a checklist of your preferences so that you can mention and consider all of them at the time of buying the absorbent.
Next point is to consolidate different stores in order to narrow down them later on the basis of your requirements and preferences.

The basic points of scrutinizing the companies or stores are:

Available wide range of products over the store to choose from

Price of the absorbent and other available details of the products that influence the buying decision.

Customer support service of the company in case of return and other emergency circumstances.

Instant delivery of the absorbent at the destined place

Set standard of the products

Later on, you can select the best store for buying your required. however, you need to ensure that you are having full set of information that helps you in selecting the required products.

Overall, you need to be assured from your selected store that you will receive your required product at the exact location within the stipulated time period. thus, you are required to choose the store that provides you exactly what you want for preventing the oil spill.

Necessity Of an Absorbent Spill Kit

Dear Kitty. Some blog :: New Zealand oil spill kills birds :: October :: 2011

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Dear Kitty. Some blog :: New Zealand oil spill kills birds :: October :: 2011

This video is called Birds Caught in Oil Leak in new Zealand.

From BirdLife:Tragic impact on wildlife from New Zealand oil disaster

Hundreds of dead birds have already been found along the Bay of Plenty coastline as a result of the Rena oil spill disaster but these represent just a fraction of the affected wildlife, Forest & Bird (BirdLife in new Zealand) have said.

“The number of birds being found washed up on the beaches will be a very small proportion of the birds being affected”, Forest & Bird’s Seabird Conservation Advocate Karen Baird said. “A lot of oil-covered birds will simply sink at sea and some of the more lightly oiled birds will be flying back to their colonies.”

Many seabirds are currently breeding on offshore islands in the Bay of Plenty and nearby regions and any impact on the parent birds will also affect their chicks. These seabirds breed in burrows so any birds with oil on their feathers could carry that oil into their nests and harm their chicks as well. If the parent birds have swallowed oil, both they and any chicks they feed are likely to die or be harmed, and the chicks of parents that die will starve.

Karen Baird said it was important that experts should get out to the breeding colonies to check on the harm occurring there. among the dead birds recorded so far are 178 Common Diving-petrels Pelecanoides urinatrix, 114 Fluttering Shearwaters Puffinus gavia, 68 Buller’s Shearwaters Puffinus bulleri and 13 Little Penguins Eudyptula minor, along with smaller numbers of albatrosses and other species of petrel.

“The fact the dead birds include numbers of Buller’s Shearwaters is significant, because they only breed on the Poor Knights Islands north of Auckland. this shows the zone of impact from the disaster has already spread outside the Bay of Plenty”, she said.

Eleven oiled Little Penguins were taken to the Oiled Wildlife Response Unit in Mount Maunganui overnight and five New Zealand Dotterels Charadrius obscurus had been removed from areas threatened by oil pollution at Matakana Island, Maketu and Pukehina.

“These three areas are important strongholds for new Zealand Dotterels, which are going into their breeding season. this is a highly endangered species, with only around 1,500 birds estimated to exist”, Karen Baird said.

Other species besides seabirds and shorebirds are being threatened. Five oiled seals were being treated and there are serious concerns for whales, dolphins and coastal fish species in the area.

Download a map of the affected area and its relation to seabird breeding sites here.New Zealand Oil Spill Pictures: Beaches, Birds Coated: here.

International Bird Rescue to Support Wildlife Response Efforts in new Zealand following Tauranga Oil Spill: here.

Dear Kitty. Some blog :: New Zealand oil spill kills birds :: October :: 2011

New Arctic offshore drilling rules require full disclosure

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New Arctic offshore drilling rules require full disclosure

The National Energy Board says applicants looking to drill offshore in the Canadian Arctic will be required to make public their safety, contingency, emergency response and environmental protection plans, part of new rules released Thursday.

The NEB’s new filing process follows a review of its requirements for Arctic offshore drilling that was begun in 2010, following the massive BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Filing requirements set out the technical information we will need to see in future applications for offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic,” said NEB chair and CEO Gaétan Caron in a press release.

“These new requirements provide clarity to future applicants and to those who will provide input into the board’s decision to approve or deny an application for a well in the Arctic.”

The board’s 53-page report sets out the recommendations for offshore drilling, including responses to oil spills.

Depending on how industry reacts to the report, it could signal a boom or a bust for communities near the Beaufort Sea.

“You’ve got a couple of billion dollars [of] potential work lined up to go in the Beaufort,” said Doug Matthews, a petroleum industry analyst.

“That’s a pretty strong committment on the part of the companies. if the conditions that the board proposes are considered by industry to be too onerous, proposed activity might just not happen. and that wouldn’t be good for the region.”

The board has given industry one of the things it was hoping to see — a slight change in its policy on relief wells, which divert oil from the main well, stopping the flow of oil into offshore waters.

The NEB said any company wishing to depart from its Same Season Relief Well Policy in a future application for a well would have to demonstrate how they would meet or exceed the intended outcome of the policy, which is to kill an out-of-control well in the same season in order to minimise impacts on the environment.

Currently, there is no offshore drilling in Canada’s Arctic waters and there are no applications for drilling before the board.

The board says while a number of companies hold exploration licences in the Beaufort Sea, they would need to respond to the newly released filing requirements in their applications.

The NEB is an independent federal agency established in 1959 to regulate international and interprovincial aspects of the oil, gas and electric utility industries.

New Arctic offshore drilling rules require full disclosure

Sea Shepherd at Deepwater Ground Zero. ***Exclusive footage***

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Sea Shepherd at Deepwater Ground Zero. ***Exclusive footage***

Sea Shepherd CEO, Steve Roest, flies at an undisclosed altitude to examine the situation in the Gulf. Watch as he narrates his account. Please help us get this evidence out there. Favorite and share this video. seashepherd.org Wednesday, June 30, 2010 Operation Gulf Rescue Ramps Up Operation Gulf Rescue the problem: on the morning of April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit exploded, killing 11 people. on the afternoon of April 22th, a large oil slick began to spread from the former rig site, and today this disaster is the largest offshore spill in US history. Estimates vary as to how much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, but experts agree that it is between 50000 and 150000 barrels of oil per day. on May 19th, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and elsewhere stated that oil had reached the Loop Current. by June 4th, the oil spill had landed on 125 miles of Louisiana’s coast, washed up along Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, and was found for the first time on a Florida barrier island at Pensacola Beach. the greatest concern has been that severe weather, as we enter hurricane season, might push the oil inland and over a far wider area, simultaneously rendering many clean-up and wildlife rescue operations useless or redundant. on June 30th, Sea Shepherd Gulf Operations Liaison Dr. Bonny Schumaker and Sea …

Sea Shepherd at Deepwater Ground Zero. ***Exclusive footage***

Oil Spill Cleanup – Lessons From the Gulf Oil Spill and 4 Steps For Cleanup & Damage Control

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Oil Spill Cleanup Lessons From the Gulf Oil Spill and 4 Steps For Cleanup & Damage Control

Big Oil spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico can be devastating on the environment. But that doesn’t mean that smaller oil spills cannot damage the environment as well. they do, just on a smaller scale. In fact, an important lesson from the Gulf Oil spill is that clean-up has to be a priority. Read to discover four key steps for cleanup and damage control.

Here are the four key steps for oil spill clean-up and damage control: Prevention, containment, the actual clean-up, and preparedness.

1) Prevention

While prevention seems not to fit, it is an important part. Oil spills or leaks can happen on a small scale, but if you have created a back-up system of containment, the leaking oil won’t have a chance to escape into the environment. This means that the problem can be solved before it ever becomes a problem.

How can you accomplish this feat? by creating extra layers of containment around the primary container. On a small scale, this means storing oil drums on spill pallets that catch any leaking or dripping oil.

2) Containment

Next, there’s containment for the event that the oil has actually escaped and is leaking or flowing into the environment, for example into the ocean or another body of water.

Now, proper containment is absolutely critical. what this means is that a barrier is set up that will keep the oil in place and prevent it form escaping and spreading.

Such containment is critical for two reasons: it will reduce damage, and it will also make clean-up much easier.

Spill berms are great for use on land, and spill booms are ideal for use on water. Booms come in absorbent and non-absorbent types. You may want both. the non-absorbent ones are especially good for keeping the oil slick contained.

3) Clean-up

Finally, the oil needs to be cleaned up. This means that it will be absorbed in some way and removed. There are a wide range of tools available to clean up oil spills, including a variety of absorbents. One of the key tools for an oil spill cleanup in a large body of water will be oil absorbent booms. they can absorb an impressive amount of water, while repelling water. once they’re full, they can be pulled out and be replaced with fresh booms — until all the oil is absorbed.

4) Preparedness

There is a fourth key to oil spill cleanup and damage control: Be prepared. In order to minimize damage to the environment, the ability to react as fast as possible is crucial. This means that if you’re dealing with oil and there’s even the remotest chance of a leak or spill, having the necessary equipment and supplies for cleanup close at hand is a must. This is a major lesson learned from the Gulf oil spill.

Oil Spill Cleanup – Lessons From the Gulf Oil Spill and 4 Steps For Cleanup & Damage Control

Oil spill: Supporters of fine bill face skeptical lawmakers

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8671033 large Oil spill: Supporters of fine bill face skeptical lawmakersThis June 2010 picture shows oil cleanup workers hired by BP collecting oil-soaked absorbent booms that were placed at the edge of the surf at the Gulf State Park Pier in Gulf Shores. (Press-Register/John David Mercer)

WASHINGTON — Gulf Coast lawmakers, business leaders and local officials pressed a congressional committee Wednesday for approval of a bill that could send billions of dollars in oil spill fines to the Gulf states, but met tough questions from critics of the proposal.

“I do have some concerns about this specific piece of legislation. the responsible parties have already agreed to fully pay the costs of the spill response, damages, and restoration activities” without use of the fines, said Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio.

Obstacles are also materializing in the Senate, with Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn telling Congressional Quarterly this month that he would block the bill “if it even gets near the floor” of the Senate.

“It’s another way for Louisiana to suck money,” Coburn told the Washington-based news service.

BP PLC and other companies deemed responsible for last year’s oil spill could be on the hook for between $5.4 billion and $21.1 billion in Clean Water Act fines. without congressional action, that money would go to a spill cleanup trust fund and to the federal treasury — not the Gulf Coast, where leaders hope to use the money for various environmental and economic recovery projects.

Skeptical members of Congress and some of the witnesses called to testify aired a variety of concerns, among them:

  • The Gulf Coast may not really need the fine money
  • Fine revenues could overlap with a separate environmental recovery process
  • Directing the money to the Gulf Coast could deprive an oil spill cleanup fund
  • Too little of the fine money would be used for scientific research

Supporters of the RESTORE Act — including Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, Republican Reps. Jo Bonner of Mobile and Steven Palazzo of Biloxi, and others — told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that the Gulf Coast is in desperate need of the fine money. they said such use of the money is only fair.

“If these funds are not returned to the Gulf states, that means that the federal government profits,” said Garret Graves, chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana. “Why should the federal government profit from the Gulf Coast’s loss?”

Bonner said not only would it be “an understatement” to say that the area struggled to stay afloat through the spill, but lawmakers must recognize that more than a year and a half after the spill, businesses are still struggling.

“There is still a lot to be done to fully heal the scars and to ensure that future threats to our region will be minimized,” Bonner told the committee.

8382579 small Oil spill: Supporters of fine bill face skeptical lawmakersRobert Craft

Craft described to the committee how his beach-side town’s economy was devastated by the spill. Still, he added, most people in Gulf Shores and throughout the Gulf Coast don’t seek an end to oil drilling.

“All we ask is that as those who are negligent are fined, that the fine money be directed to the coastal economies that were damaged,” Craft said.

Gibbs questioned the need for fine money to be sent to the Gulf, noting that the area receives part of the revenue generated by offshore drilling and was given federal assistance after Hurricane Katrina.

A spokeswoman for Coburn, who expressed similar views in his Congressional Quarterly interview, did not respond to a request for comment.

Palazzo said that because the Gulf Coast accounts for a substantial part of the nation’s seafood, energy production and economy, funding the area’s recovery will have widespread benefit.

“It is in our nation’s best interests that this Congress works diligently and passes the RESTORE Act. There is no time to waste,” Palazzo said.

But speaking with reporters before the hearing, Palazzo acknowledged that the bill likely won’t pass by year’s end.

“I don’t think the end of the year is possible,” he said.

The committee adjourned without voting on the bill.

Oil spill: Supporters of fine bill face skeptical lawmakers

How can energy industry improve its image? Advocacy group plans tour to learn more – Mywesttexas.com: Oil

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How can energy industry improve its image? Advocacy group plans tour to learn more Mywesttexas.com: Oil

Other than Wall Street, few other segments of the economyattract as much vitriol as the energy industry in general and oiland gas in particular.

Realizing that just as much energy must be expended to clean upits public image as is spent on cleaning up an oil spill, spokesmanMark Stansberry of Oklahoma-based Energy Advocates is going on theroad in 2012 to both disburse and collect information. EnergyAdvocates is a nonprofit group founded in 1974 to promote oil, gas,coal, wind, solar and other forms of energy to the general public.a former president of EA (2003-2009), Stansberry is also chairmanof the GTD Group, an energy investment and trade company with afocus on natural gas.

“What we’re trying to do is to get out more and have morehands-on talks with folks … in different cities, making speechesand hosting round-tables, conferences, whatever, especially in2012,” said Stansberry. “We want to find out what’s on the minds ofpeople” regarding energy. The fact that 2012 is an election yearmeans public policy will be more on peoples’ minds, but Stansberrysaid that was not the primary reason for scheduling a tour in thattime frame.

“It’s more like, the message doesn’t seem to be — as far asenergy education – reaching everyone,” he said.

His goal is to raise public awareness of the need for energy andthat energy is not a bad thing. “Really, energy is our friend –nothing moves without energy,” he pointed out, listing agriculture,transportation and health care among other sectors that dependgreatly on energy for their own survival.

Because Energy Advocates involves all major types of energy,part of the city-to-city discussions will involve how to best useeach type, and to use all types efficiently. The discussion alsowill involve questions of who should make those decisions — shouldthey be left to consumers or should government get involved,especially to promote such things as wind and solar energy that donot currently compete with oil and gas on an economic basis — andshould oil and gas be taxed to pay for those subsidies?

As a supporter of natural gas himself, Stansberry noted eventhat fuel could need government support to gain more use. Becausenatural gas is cleaner burning than gasoline or diesel and becausethe U.S. does not import the fuel as it does crude oil, some haveadvocated using natural gas in vehicles. doing so, however, wouldinvolve a huge investment in infrastructure to deliver natural gasto fueling stations across the country. Stansberry compared thepossibility of government support for such a task to its investmentin the interstate highway system. “Sometimes a partnership doesoccur between government and private enterprise,” he said, addingthat, ultimately, the market should drive the demand.

On the tour Stansberry will seek out community leaders ineconomic development, media, legislators as well as consumers, ingroups of five to seven people. some round tables will involve 20or more attendees. “We’ll get a dialogue going as to what peoplewould like to see in their area, what we can do to assist in theeducation effort. I can see us assisting, especially in thePanhandle and in your area on the wind energy side,” he explained.”What we’ve done successfully is to share the pros and cons (aboutvarious forms of energy) and to let the people decide.”

As an example of what to expect, Stansberry recalled a recentround table in Kansas City involving 20 or so community leaders. Heasked the participants about their perceptions of various fuels. Ofcoal, the perception was that it is “very dirty.” Of natural gas,they said, “We hear it’s clean.”

“I got to one question I thought was really interesting – Iasked them what they thought of the Pickens plan. I asked if theyhad signed up or if they knew about it. and roughly two out of 10had even heard of it,” he said.

The Pickens Plan, named for its author, oilman T. Boone Pickens,who came forward with the plan in the summer of 2008, proposes thebuilding of thousands of wind generation farms which, in his view,would provide 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs. The natural gasthat would have been required to generate that power could then befunneled into vehicle use, reducing the need for imported oil by 38percent, according to his figures.

Perhaps the most informative meeting was one held in Washington,D. C. with college students from that city. “They told us, ‘You’reapproaching it all wrong’ in education. they said that we should bedoing more of the social media instead of print.” one idea was todo videos on YouTube. The students referred to a video on that sitepromoting clean coal, which apparently had convinced several ofthem on that topic. for that age group, Stansberry said, “Weprobably are approaching it all wrong.”

In the realm of public image, he admitted, each type of energyhas its cons. for natural gas, it is hydraulic fracturing, fornuclear energy it is the waste, for coal it is miner safety and airquality, for wind the concerns are about safety for birds flyingnearby, solar was hurt by the Solyndra scandal and so on. There isdispute over whether some of those issues are overstated, but theperceptions still affect public opinion.

If the public became better educated on the issues for each typeof energy they could make decisions on the facts rather than onsound bites – then they could inform legislators of what they want,Stansberry said. In his own quest to educate the public, Stansberrysaid he does not have a firm count of the number of stops he plansto make, choosing to see what opportunities arise.

Paul Wiseman can be reached at .

© 2011 Mywesttexas.com. all rights reserved. this material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

How can energy industry improve its image? Advocacy group plans tour to learn more – Mywesttexas.com: Oil