Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/577975
ByDanJoling and Jonathan Fahey The Associated Press ANCHORAGE, ALASKA RoyalDutchShellhasaban- doned its long quest to be- come the first company to produce oil in Alaska's Arc- tic waters, darkening the nation's long-term oil pros- pects and delighting envi- ronmental groups that tried to block the project. After years of effort, Shell is leaving the region "for the foreseeable future" because it failed to find enough oil to make further drilling worthwhile. The company has spent more than $7 billion on the effort, slogged through a regulatory gauntlet and fought environmental groups that feared a spill in the harsh climate would be difficult to clean up and devastating to polar bears, walruses, seals and other wildlife. Shell persisted in hopes of finding a big new source of oil revenue and establish- ing expertise and a pres- ence in the Arctic, which geologists estimate holds a quarter of the world's un- discovered conventional oil and gas. The drilling project also held the hopes of Alaska, which has seen oil produc- tion and revenues decline sharply in recent years, and the U.S. oil industry, which looked to Alaska's offshore Arctic as the next source of oil big enough to keep the country among the top three oil producers in the world along with Saudi Ara- bia and Russia. But Shell drilled to 6,800 feet about 80 miles offshore in the Chukchi Sea off Alas- ka's northwest coast and just didn't find much. "Shell continues to see important exploration po- tential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the U.S.," Mar- vin Odum, director of Shell's operations in the Americas, said in a statement issued late Sunday. "However, this is a clearly disappointing ex- ploration outcome for this part of the basin." Known in the industry as turning up a "dry hole," it's common for exploratory drilling to find little to no oil, especially in formations that have not been explored much in the past. But Shell's failure is no- table because it was the only active drilling project in the sea, which Shell of- ficials had called "a poten- tial game-changer," a vast untapped reservoir that could add to America's en- ergy supply for 50 years. As recently as March, an Energy Department advi- sory council called for an immediate expansion of oil exploration in the American Arctic to avoid an increased reliance on imported oil in the future, in part because it would take more than a decade for oil in the Arctic to be discovered, developed and brought to market. CharlesEbinger,seniorfel- lowfortheBrookingsInstitu- tionEnergySecurityandCli- mate Initiative, said in an in- terviewthatasuccessfulwell by Shell would have been "a terribly big deal" because it would have attracted others to the region. Though countries are pushing for cleaner energy sources, analysts predict that the world will need another 10 million barrels a day between 2030 and 2040 to meet growing de- mand, especially in devel- oping countries, Ebinger said. The world now con- sumes 93.6 million barrels of oil every day. Regions like the Arctic "are one of the areas that, if we're going to be able to do this, we need to exam- ine," he said. The Arctic's vast oil and gas potential is exactly what worries scientists, who warn against tapping new sources of fossil fuels at a time when the world needs to drastically reduce emissions of carbon diox- ide from fossil fuel con- sumption in order to pre- vent catastrophic changes to the earth's climate. ALASKA'S ARCTIC WATERS Sh el l mo ve d im s oi l pr os pe ct s, delights environmentalists DONRYAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE The Royal Dutch Shell PLC icebreaker Fennica heads up the Willamette River under protesters hanging from the St. Johns Bridge on its way to Alaska in Portland, Ore. JACQUELYN MARTIN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. By Andrew Taylor The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Sen- ate on Monday delivered a strong vote of confidence to a bipartisan spend- ing bill that's needed to head off a government shutdown at midnight Wednesday. The 77-19 vote powers the measure past a filibus- ter by some of the cham- ber's most ardent con- servatives, who were an- gered that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stripped a provision that would cancel federal fund- ing of Planned Parenthood in exchange for keeping the government open. McConnell is under fire from tea partyers who de- mand that he fight harder against Planned Parent- hood — even at the risk of a partial government shut- down — but McConnell is more concerned with pro- tecting his 2016 re-elec- tion class from political damage if Republicans are blamed for a shutdown. Last week, Democrats led a filibuster of a Sen- ate stopgap measure that would have defunded Planned Parenthood. Eight Republicans did not support that measure, leaving it short of a sim- ple majority, much less the 60 votes required to over- come the filibuster. The current bill is "the only viable way forward in the short term," Mc- Connell said. "It doesn't represent my first, sec- ond, third or 23rd choice when it comes to funding the government, but it will keep the government open through the fall." The Senate is expected to approve the bill Tuesday and send it to the House. The White House en- dorsed the measure since it would allow "critical gov- ernment functions to oper- ate without interruption, providing a short-term bridge to give the Congress timetopassabudgetforthe remainderofthefiscalyear." ThePlannedParenthood fight helped topple House SpeakerJohnBoehner,who announced his resignation last week after informing several conservatives that he would not use the must- pass spending measure to take on the group. The measure would keep the government's doors open through Dec. 11, but the battle is sure to be rejoined then — at a po- tentially greater risk of a shutdown. Senate advances stopgap spending bill to avoid shutdown BUDGET By Michelle L. Price and Lindsay Whitehurst The Associated Press SALTLAKECITY The Utah branch of Planned Parent- hood sued the governor on Monday for ordering state agencies to cut off federal funding to the organiza- tion following the release of secretly recorded videos by an anti-abortion group. Republican Gov. Gary Herbert's action was un- constitutional and based on unfounded allegations, the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah said in federal court documents. He blocked funding dis- tributedbythestateafteran anti-abortion group leaked videos showing Planned Parenthood officials de- scribing how they provide fetal tissue from abortions for medical research. Herbert spokeswoman Aimee Edwards said Monday that the governor stands by his order. "He was offended by the actions of Planned Parent- hood and the callousness with which they discussed human life," Edwards said in a statement. Planned Parenthood has said it acted legally and that the tapes were de- ceptively edited. The orga- nization is barred from us- ing federal or state money for abortions. FEDERAL MONEY Planned Parenthood sues Utah a er funds cut By Geir Moulson and David Rising The Associated Press BERLIN German prosecu- tors on Monday opened an investigation against for- mer Volkswagen CEO Mar- tin Winterkorn to establish what his role was in the emissions-rigging scandal that has shaken the world's largest automaker. The investigation will concentrate on the suspi- cion of fraud committed through the sale of vehicles with manipulated emis- sions data, and aims to de- termine who was responsi- ble, prosecutors in Braun- schweig said in a statement. In the German system, anyone can file a criminal complaint with prosecu- tors, who are then obliged to examine it and decide whether there is enough evidence to open a formal investigation. In this case, follow- ing the revelations about the rigged tests, prose- cutors in Braunschweig, near VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg, received about a dozen complaints, includ- ing one from Volkswagen itself, said spokeswoman Julia Meyer. She said it was too early to say if and when prose- cutors may try and inter- view Winterkorn himself, and that she did not know whether he already had an attorney to represent him. She said at this stage, she could not estimate how long the investigation would last. "This is a very broad case and in other such investi- gations it has taken many months, sometimes years," she said. Winterkorn, Volkswa- gen's CEO since 2007, re- signed Wednesday — days after the world's top-selling carmaker admitted that it had rigged diesel emissions to pass U.S. tests during his tenure. He said that he was going "in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrong- doing on my part." Under German law, it is not possible to bring charges against a com- pany, only against individ- uals. Meyer would not elab- orate on specifics of the in- vestigation, and it wasn't clear what Winterkorn's suspected role might be. There was no immediate comment from Volkswa- gen on the prosecutors' de- cision. Fraud can carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years in Germany. The head of VW's Porsche division, Matth- ias Mueller, was appointed Friday as Volkswagen's new CEO. He promised to do ev- erything to win back the public's trust. The company has admit- ted that it used a piece of engine software to cheat on diesel car emissions tests in the U.S. It will have to fix programming it has said is in some 11 million cars worldwide, far more than the 482,000 originally iden- tified by U.S. authorities. Details on what cars are involved have emerged gradually. The group, which has 12 marques in all, said Friday that some 5 million cars made by its core Volk- swagen brand had the die- sel engine in question. On Monday, Audi said that 2.1 million of its ve- hicles also had the engine, while Czech-based Skoda said 1.2 million vehicles were affected. Volkswagen shares, which were pummelled early last week before re- covering some ground, headed south again on Monday. They were down 7.1 percent in afternoon Frankfurt trading at 107.40 euros ($120.20). EMISSIONS RIGGING SCANDAL German prosecutors investigate former VW boss JOERG SARBACH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the board of the Volkswagen group, appears during the annual press conference in Wolfsburg, northern Germany. JoinOur"HydrateOurHeroes"WaterDrive Let'sgetlocalareafirefightersthewatertheyneedforwhentheybattletheblaze. FromnowuntiltheendofSeptember,BrookdaleRedBluffwillbecollectingcasesofbottledwater from local businesses, veterans groups, civic organizations and not-for-profits in effort to keep local firefighters hydrated as they keep us safe. Drop off your water at 705 Luther Road, or call us at (530) 529-2900 for a pick-up. All participating partners will be officially thanked in The Red Bluff Daily News. Our firemen are our heroes. Let's be theirs during this very special drive. Donate today. For more information, call (530) 529-2900. BrookdaleRedBluff FormerlyEmeritus ® at Lassen House Assisted Living | Alzheimer's & Dementia Care 705 Luther Rd | Red Bluff, CA 96080 | (530) 529-2900 RCFE # 525002546 brookdale.com EQU AL HOUS ING OPPORTUN ITY ✓Checkoutourselection of beer, wine & tobacco YourOneStopConvenienceStore 5am to 11pm 714 Walnut St., Red Bluff ONE STOP 525 Antelope Blvd Red Bluff (530) 527-5272 Mon.–Fri.8am-5pm Saturday by appointment Visitournewlyremodeled show room &signuptowinsetof4newtires Locally owned & operated 9 locations throughout California & Oregon NEWS » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, September 29, 2015 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS D1