In an interview with Fuel Fix, Charlie Williams, director of the Center for Offshore Safety, fields a question about the perceptions surrounding the safety of drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico:

“I think the biggest misconception is that not much has been done, when there has been a tremendous amount of effort by the industry and by regulators in moving this forward. … There has been more collaboration, cooperation and improvement in working together to make things better than I think we have ever done before.”

Steadily improving offshore safety in oil and natural gas development was the main reason for the center’s creation and Williams’ selection as director last year. The center gathers industry practices that foster safe and responsible operations, shares the inform... more »

Energy continues to play a large role in the presidential debates – evidence that both candidates get the importance of reliable, affordable energy for our economy and for making America more secure, now and in the future.

Early in the Hofstra University debate, President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney had a spirited conversation about domestic oil and natural gas production. The president:

“We’ve got to control our own energy…We have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years. Natural gas production is the highest it’s been in decades.”

Then, while talking about an energy portfolio that also includes wind, solar and biofuels, the president said:

“I want to build on that. And that means, yes, we still continue to open up new areas for drilling. We continue to m... more »

Here’s the Center for Offshore Safety’s Charlie Williams, telling a CSIS forum this week about industry’s continuing effort to make drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as safe as possible:

“The mission here is to promote the highest level of safety – and it’s through effective leadership, communication, teamwork, safety management systems and independent third-party auditing of these systems.”

The center is a growing repository of information, which Williams described as the foundation for responsible operating plans as well as safety and environmental management systems or SEMS. Information is generated, compiled and communicated to industry members. Independent audits of each company’s SEMS determine if there are any gaps in systems and programs designed to prevent accidents. Willia... more »

Ridiculing a New York Times editorial blog is like shooting unusually large fish in a barrel, but this one from last Friday is so fantastical and extreme that a commitment to an honest debate on energy compels me to fire away.  And we don’t have to go far to start the fact check, as they lead with:

"The simple truth, as President Obama has recognized, is that a country that holds less than 3 percent of the world’s reserves but consumes more than 20 percent of the world’s supply cannot drill its way to energy independence."

You would think that by 2012 the New York Times would know better than to take political rhetoric as fact, as the Washington Post notes in giving the president Two Pinocchios for the above claim “A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing... more »

We believe Americans are ready for grown-up discussion of our country’s future course on energy – thus the Vote 4 Energy campaign to make energy a vote-deciding issue in this fall’s elections. So it’s disappointing when opponents of reasonable proposals to bring more of our country’s ample oil and natural gas resources online – creating jobs, generating more revenue for governments and strengthening America’s energy future – roll out threadbare talking points that are detached from energy reality and dismissive of the opinions of a strong majority of U.S. voters.

This week President Obama’s deputy campaign manager rejected a set of energy proposals – including increasing domestic oil and gas production, clearing the federal permitting process of unnecessary impediments and giving state... more »