Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday called on the U.S. Congress to hold hearings into BP's operations in Alaska following a second oil pipeline rupture at its Prudhoe Bay operations over the weekend that will shut the 400,000 barrel-a-day oilfield. "It is appalling that BP let this critical pipeline deteriorate to the point that a major production shutdown was necessary," said Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement. "The United States Congress has an obligation to hold hearings to...

U.S. District Court Judge Paul G. Cassell ruled last month in favor of the Bureau of Land Management in the matter of Veritas DGC Land Inc's 2-D geophysical exploration project in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah. The ruling affirmed BLM on all counts brought before the court, the agency said. In his decision, according to the BLM's Utah State Office, Judge Cassell wrote, "The Environmental Analysis and its suggested mitigation methods show that the BLM gave adequate consideration to the environmental effects, both in terms of direct recovery time and residual effects of the project." In October 2002, after...