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Now that the Obama administration is embarking on another four years of breathtaking mediocrity, its bureaucratic minions have already devised two new angles by which to attack the upstream oil and gas industry—sea mammals and birds. And in pursuing one of these angles, the Obama shock troops are getting a helping hand from that ultimate money pit of malcontents, the United Nations (UN).
Commercial noise threatens sea mammals—that’s what The New York Times reported last month, describing how “the ocean depths have become a noisy place.” Fingers are being pointed at sonar blasts for military exercises; booms from air guns used for marine seismic surveys; and the “whine” from the engines of many commercial ships in fleets worldwide. Marine biologists claim that the growing noise level is particularly dangerous to whales.
To address the situation, U.S. officials have used taxpayer money to complete the first phase of an increasingly large effort to reduce oceanic noise pollution. Spearheaded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA), the project documents human-made noises in the ocean and transforms the results into large sound maps. These visualizations use bright colors to represent sound levels in various areas, and dozens of these visualizations have now been made public.
Several larger maps show the sound data as annual averages, designed in such a way that the noise levels appear to be growing, year by year. The study’s first portion has used various colors to represent scales of noise. Red is the noisiest (115 decibels), followed in order by orange, yellow, green and blue (least noisy, at 40 decibels). Study authors say that too many areas of the global ocean surface are orange-colored, denoting high average noise levels. They intend to use this information, and more study results to come, to justify proposals to reduce noise through laws, regulations, treaties and voluntary decibel-level reductions. The U.S. already has some power to do this, through the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A UN subsidiary, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), also is claiming authority to set acoustic standards. Encouraged during the last few years by the Obama regime, IMO is looking into how to achieve “voluntary noise reductions.” Indeed, NOAA, instructed by the White House, is building some new research ships to “quieter” standards, particularly as regards propeller design. One can imagine that the commercial shipping industry will soon be forced to follow NOAA’s lead. And if that happens, how long will it be, before the Feds want to take away all the air guns?
Butchering birds. If ocean noise wasn’t enough, now comes word via Fox News that federal officials regularly look the other way, as their favored wind farms kill thousands of birds, but then turn around and haul oil and gas firms to court for “killing birds.” Consider this example—during 2011, lights were left on during a foggy night at a West Virginia 61-tower wind farm, causing songbirds to be lured into the site, and resulting in 500 being killed. The birds’ deaths came from exhaustion and collisions with an electrical substation at the site. Remarkably, it was the third time that this happened, but each time, the Feds ignored the situation.
On the other hand, just last month, a Denver-based oil company was fined $22,500 for the deaths of a dozen migratory birds in Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming several years ago. On top of that, the firm was ordered to pay an additional $7,500 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. These two radically different outcomes reflect what industry critics call a blatant double standard, whereby E&P firms are penalized, while wind power producers get a free pass.
Here’s another set of examples—a few months ago, the U.S. Justice Department brought charges against Bakken shale pioneer, Continental Resources, along with six other companies operating in North Dakota, for causing the deaths of 28 migratory birds, in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. By comparison, in central California, 70 golden eagles were killed by wind turbines in Altamont Pass, without prosecution. In fact, the Altamont wind farm, which uses older turbine technology, may be America’s biggest bird killer. A study funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency estimates that 10,000 birds, almost all of which are protected by the bird act, are killed every year at Altamont.
It turns out that that the wind power sector has had an exemption from prosecution under the bird act and the Eagle Protection Act. Many critics want this to change—but this effort may get lost temporarily in fiscal negotiations between Obama and the House of Representatives, in which the wind industry’s tax credit, itself, has become a bargaining chip.
Ketchup diplomacy. The Obama regime showed that it is the most left-wing administration in U.S. history, when El Presidente nominated Sen. John Kerry (Dem.-Mass.) to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Kerry is one of Congress’ most liberal members, dating back to his anti-Vietnam War antics of 1970–1971. He is infamous for participating with thousands of Vietnam veterans in throwing away their combat medals over a fence in front of the U.S. Capitol, to show opposition to the war. Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, who gained great wealth as the life estate beneficiary or outright beneficiary of her first husband’s trusts. Her first husband, former Sen. John Heinz III, was an heir to the J. H. Heinz Company fortune (as in ketchup), but he died in a mid-air crash in April 1991. The outspoken Teresa Heinz Kerry remains chair of The Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, and she seems to influence her current husband’s politics. So, if Kerry is confirmed as the next secretary of state, would it be fair to call this the “era of ketchup diplomacy?” 
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