Have your say: The federal agency handling offshore drilling is inviting the public to comment on proposed petroleum lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over the next five years. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold a hearing today in Jefferson Parish. The government’s first auction of offshore petroleum leases in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 drew $333.7 million in winning bids. That sale covered the western gulf off the coast of Texas. Environmental groups are challenging the sale and issuance of the leases from the sale in federal court, saying the government did not properly consider environmental impacts in the wake of the BP spill. Get details on the five-year lease sale plan and submit your comments at the BOEM website here.
Spinning a new web: Bidding will begin this week for words and brand names such as “.sport,” “.NYC” and “.bank” to join “.com” as online monikers. Up to 1,000 domain name suffixes—the “.com” in an Internet address—could be added each year in the most sweeping change to the domain name system since its creation in the 1980s. To some, the system will lead to “.cash.” To others, it will mean “.confusion.” Some companies and entrepreneurs have already expressed interest in applying for a suffix and possibly earning millions of dollars a year from people and groups wanting a website that ends in that name. Others are skeptical, though. Some worry that an expansion will mean more addresses available to scams that use similar-sounding names such as “Amazom” rather than “Amazon” to trick people into giving passwords and credit card information. Others worry that new suffixes could create additional platforms for hate groups or lead to addresses ending in obscenities. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
Warsaw scandal: Seven people, including government officials, have been charged with corruption during the granting of licenses for shale gas exploration in Poland, a spokesman for prosecutors announced today. Waldemar Tyl of the Warsaw Appeals Prosecutor’s Office, who announced the charges, says bribes of tens of thousands of zlotys (Polish dollars) were handed over in the second half of 2011 alone. The Internal Security Agency says three Environment Ministry officials, an employee of the state Geology Institute and three representatives of companies involved in shale gas exploration were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in bribery. Poland, which is trying to limit its dependence on gas and oil imports from Russia, is believed to have sizable shale gas deposits. It has granted more than 100 licenses for shale gas exploration to international companies including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Petrolinvest.
Today’s poll question: With first-place finishes in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, do you think Mitt Romney has secured the GOP presidential nomination?
