Carol Browner News

“Today, I’ve spoken with National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, as well as Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and senior White House advisors John Brennan and Carol Browner regarding the ongoing efforts to stop the BP oil spill. From the beginning, our concern has been that the surest way to stop the flow of oil – the drilling of relief wells – would take several months to complete. So engineers and experts have explored a variety of alternatives to stop the leak now. They had hoped that the top kill approach attempted this week would halt the flow of oil and gas currently escaping from the seafloor. But while we initially received optimistic reports about the procedure, it is now clear that it has not worked.

The U.S. oil industry may have found its dream team with Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush's pick of Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton Company, as his vice presidential running mate. American energy firms could get a break from environmental regulations and policies imposed under the Clinton-Gore administration that industry representatives claim have discouraged domestic oil production and left the United States vulnerable to foreign suppliers like OPEC. Bush's prior experience as an independent oil operator had already won him industry favor, and that popularity is likely to grow with Cheney, who headed the world's largest oil field service company, now joining the ticket.

"What you're seeing now, is a 'flight to quality,'" said Rear Admiral George Naccara, of the USCG, at the Y2K Luncheon held in New York last month. The Y2K Luncheon, sponsored by the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey, brought together individuals from three main sectors of the shipping industry, to discuss what steps each had made in designing and implementing a plan to ensure computer systems were "Y2K" (or Year 2000) compliant. John Hill, director of the Application Development Division of U.S. According to Hill, the initial plan was for approximately 180,000 work-hours of programming and testing. Already, he said, the total had exceeded 200,000 work-hours of effort to reprogram the systems. Close to $12 million in expenditures have been necessary.

EPA Administrator Carol Browner signed a final rule establishing new emission standards for commercial marine diesel engines at or above 37 kW (approximately 50 hp). EPA's final rule aplies emission standards to new engines only, beginning with the 2004 model year. Vessels and engines built before 2004 will not be subject to emission control requirements. However, if a vessel is subsequently modified such that 50 percent of the modified vessel's value is derived from new material or components, the vessel will be considered new and will be required to meet engine emission standards in effect at the time the modifications are made. EPA believes this will prevent companies from re-using parts from used vessels to avoid emission standards.