With the Interior Department looking to greatly expand the coastal regions made available for oil and natural gas drilling, Florida GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Francis Rooney told Politico that House Speaker Paul Ryan has pledged to push for a ban on drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Why it matters: Republican support for President Trump's "energy dominance" agenda has a limit, and one of the areas most likely to fall off the final drilling plan is offshore Florida. NIMBYism — not in my backyard — is a tried and true practice. Florida's politicians from both parties have long opposed drilling off their coastline given the state's dependence on beach tourism and fears of an oil spill.
The U.S. biofuels mandate is driving destruction of ecologically vital forests in Argentina to make way for soybean fields, despite U.S. policy aimed at preventing imports of biodiesel linked to deforestation, according to a new report out today.
The report, available here, from the groups Mighty Earth and ActionAid USA (two groups that oppose biodiesel), is broadly critical of biodiesel's environmental footprint. But the research is focused on the Chaco region of Argentina, where a team led by the environmental investigation group Ecostorm conducted an on-the-ground inquiry, the groups said.
Charif Souki is considered one of the pioneers of America’s natural-gas export boom. I recently spoke with Souki, who founded a new company called Tellurian Inc., for my latest Harder Line column. Here are more highlights from our December interview:
The string of devastating hurricanes and wildfires across the United States in 2017 cost the country $306 billion in damages, a record-breaking number, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.
Key stat: In 2017, there were 16 separate disaster events that topped $1 billion in damages. And these 16 events — which included storms, wildfires, droughts and freezes — killed 362 people.
America's natural gas industry is riding a political and economic wave it hopes can go all over the world. Much like surfing, it's not easy and won't last forever. Just ask Charif Souki.
Why we can learn from him: Souki, founder of Tellurian Inc., a new Houston-based natural-gas company, is considered a pioneer among his peers and embodies much of the sector's ebbs and flows. "We're riding the wave now if we can figure out how to do it," Souki told me in an interview in the firm's new Washington, D.C. office.
