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Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Greenpeace Submits Against The Regulatory Standards Bill And Its Far-right Fringe Ideas
Greenpeace Aotearoa has today filed its submission opposing the Regulatory Standards Bill and calling for it to be rejected in full. The Greenpeace submission has pulled no punches, stating: "Dressed up in the language of freedom and liberty, this Bill promotes a fringe libertarian worldview that individuals and corporations are entitled to harm nature and others, and if restrictions are placed on them, then they should be compensated." "This ideology is fundamentally at odds with our nation's deeply-rooted values of fairness, care, and collective responsibility." "At its core, this Bill is an attempt by a far-right politician to create a bill of rights for corporations, at the expense of the rights of New Zealanders, the rights of nature, and the rights of Māori guaranteed to them under Te Tiriti o Waitangi." "If enacted, it will, without doubt, erode environmental protection, lead to the extinction of precious native wildlife, and impair the Government's ability to take action on climate change." The Greenpeace Aotearoa submission goes on to warn that the Bill would open the floodgates for corporations to expect taxpayer handouts for any regulation that protects public health and the environment, or tries to manage the cost of living. It gives a series of chilling examples: If rules were strengthened to prevent catastrophic oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the executives at BP oil would expect millions from the taxpayer. Basic protections for our drinking water or lakes and rivers, would see Fonterra making complaints to an unelected regulatory standards board and expecting a public payout. Supermarket giants would expect compensation for any efforts to limit price gouging and bring down grocery prices. Offshore shareholders of multinational forestry companies would expect a payout for any new laws compelling them to prevent further deaths of New Zealand forestry workers. Even the Tobacco industry would expect taxpayer dollars simply for efforts to save New Zealanders' lives and get us to a smoke-free reality. The full submission can be found here. Greenpeace has been mobilising its supporters to make submissions opposing the bill.
Fast Company
14-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
How smart leaders balance urgency with curiosity
Modern business operates under a dangerous paradox. The same forces that make curiosity essential—rapid change, complexity, and uncertainty—are the ones that systematically suppress it. While organizations desperately need the innovation and adaptability that comes from asking better questions, the relentless pressure for speed creates an environment where curiosity dies. Pressure Points This isn't theoretical. The consequences play out in boardrooms and headlines daily. Three pressure points consistently strangle organizational curiosity: Always-On Urgency transforms work into endless reaction cycles. Volkswagen's emissions scandal emerged when employees, under pressure to quickly meet environmental regulations, defaulted to shortcuts rather than pausing to ask whether their approach was ethical or sustainable. The constant demand for immediate responses eliminates space for the fundamental question: 'Is this the right approach?' Pressure to React Immediately equates speed with competence while framing thoughtful questioning as hesitation. During the Deepwater Horizon crisis, BP executives rushed to provide public reassurances rather than taking time to fully assess the damage. This premature response not only eroded public trust but led to operational missteps that worsened the disaster. When leaders feel compelled to have answers immediately, they abandon the inquiry that leads to better solutions. Speed-Obsessed Work Culture makes 'move fast and break things' the dominant operating principle. Theranos epitomized this danger—under immense pressure to deliver revolutionary blood-testing technology, leadership ignored scientific red flags and silenced employees who questioned feasibility. The rush to market created a fraudulent enterprise that collapsed under scrutiny. It's the combination of these pressures that puts organizations at risk. Diane Hamilton, author of Curiosity Unleashed and creator of the Curiosity Code Index, researched what inhibits curiosity in the workplace to help leaders break out of stagnant patterns. According to her findings, when environments squeeze out curiosity, 'People start holding back ideas, skipping conversations, and sticking to what feels safe. That's when curiosity shuts down and organizations cling to past ways of doing things that no longer work.' Speed Bumps The solution isn't choosing between speed and curiosity—it's installing 'strategic speed bumps' which create just enough pause for better questions to emerge. Leaders need speed bumps at three levels: interpersonal, team, and organizational. Interpersonal. Curiosity often gets squelched in one-on-one dialogues, but the most powerful speed bump is deceptively simple: pause during heated discussions to state what you heard and ask if you understood correctly. Instead of rapid-fire debate, try: 'I'm gathering that you're worried about this direction because it might alienate our longest-standing clients. Is that an accurate understanding of your concern?' This technique significantly increases accurate listening while slowing potentially tense exchanges. It creates room for questions and deepens relationships by signaling that you value others' perspectives enough to ensure you've heard them correctly. When leaders model this behavior, it spreads throughout the organization. Team-Level. Teams need built-in moments that interrupt the execution mindset. The most effective approach involves structured quiet time before critical discussions or decisions. Allocate a few minutes for everyone to write down thoughts, questions, or concerns before opening discussion. Use question-oriented brainstorming techniques with creative constraints, such as: 'Generate five 'what if' questions about our marketing strategy in the next two minutes.' This approach maximizes diverse perspectives while ensuring introverts have processing time and extroverts can refine initial thoughts. These pauses aren't about halting team progress—they're about widening the lens to identify hidden opportunities and blind spots. Organizational. The highest-leverage organizational speed bump involves reframing acute problems as opportunities for systemic improvement rather than issues requiring quick fixes. When urgent issues arise, resist the default response of immediate patches. Instead, pause to examine underlying causes and explore broader solutions. Great Ormond Street Hospital demonstrates this approach brilliantly. Facing critical errors during patient transfers between operating rooms and intensive care, hospital leaders could have simply demanded faster, better execution of existing procedures. Instead, they paused to seek inspiration elsewhere. After observing Formula One pit crews, they invited Ferrari's team to analyze their patient handover process. The racing experts identified fundamental structural problems: unclear roles, overlapping conversations, and unpredictable leadership transitions. By applying pit crew principles—defined roles, synchronized actions, and systematic error tracking—the hospital reduced technical errors by nearly half while improving information transfer. The breakthrough came not from moving faster, but from pausing to intentionally redesign the system. The Roadmap Start immediately with these three steps: This week: Implement 'paraphrase and check' in your next three important conversations. Notice how it changes the dynamic and information quality. This month: Introduce two-minute question-oriented brainstorming sessions before your team's most critical decisions. Track whether this generates insights you would have missed. This quarter: Identify your organization's next acute problem as an opportunity for strategic learning rather than quick fixes. Ask what other industries or approaches might offer unexpected solutions. Organizations don't need to choose between speed and learning—they need both. Strategic speed bumps maintain momentum while ensuring critical thinking and innovation never get sacrificed. The most successful organizations don't just move fast—they move wisely.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
US agencies scramble to contain massive oil leak from decades-old well: 'We owe it to our communities'
A tri-agency effort between the U.S. Coast Guard, Spectrum OpCo, LLC, and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office helped contain a weeklong oil-and-gas well leak located at the border of a Louisiana parish at the Gulf of Mexico, according to The Business Journal. The oil spill was first reported April 26 as coming from the shut-in of a natural oil and gas well, known as Well #59, per the Coast Guard's first update in a series of press releases on the incident. This well, owned by Spectrum OpCo, had been inactive since 2016 and had not had measurable oil pressure since the 1990s, according to CBS News. The well remained idle for nearly a decade, but it had not been permanently plugged or sealed for abandonment. Within 24 hours of the confirmed spill, nearly 100 responders were actively working to contain the oil leak and minimize damage. The emergency response included the use of skimmers, containment boom barriers, and absorbent booms to prevent the spread of oil, which could damage nearby marshes and islands. By the time the three agencies, dubbed "Unified Command," gained control of the discharge — a week after the first report — the response teams had recovered nearly 71,000 gallons of crude oil and natural gas water mixture from Garden Island Bay. Per the Coast Guard's final press release, there have been four reports of oiled birds and one oiled alligator observed. Three of the birds were captured for rehabilitation, and one has since been freed. While not a regular occurrence, oil spills do happen, and each incident causes significant, long-term damage to marine habitats and marine life. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that happened in the very same region in 2010 caused $17.2 billion in damage to natural resources, according to a Virginia Tech article. A recent landslide in Ecuador has resulted in a large oil spill in the Esmeraldas River, which the Esmeraldas province mayor described as "unprecedented." Crude oil spills, which contain toxic volatile organic compounds, contaminate bodies of water with extremely dangerous and toxic chemical substances harmful to human health and marine life. Communities living near an oil spill site may be at higher risk of cancer because of exposure to these toxic compounds. In marine life, exposure to VOCs may cause stunted growth, immune system defects, and even death, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Oil-coated marine life, such as seabirds and otters, may find it difficult to fly or keep warm as the oil may strip the fur of its insulating properties. Taking inspiration from a sea sponge known by its common name, the Venus flower basket, researchers from China's Harbin Institute of Technology have replicated a vortex-anchored filter, with the sponge's architecture that allows the device to filter out oil particles in water. Russian scientists have developed a sniffing machine, or an e-nose, to help detect oil spills in soil. This device is at least 20 times more cost-effective at detecting oil incidents than current lab equipment. Cleaning up large oil spills will require a collaborative effort on all levels of government and various agencies. "We owe it to our communities, our environment, and our future generations to safeguard Louisiana's coast — before it's too late," said U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, per The Business Journal. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
E&E News
12-06-2025
- General
- E&E News
NOAA to distribute $210M for Gulf of Mexico restoration
NOAA Fisheries is set to spend more than $210 million on restoration projects in the Gulf of Mexico to continue cleanup of the massive 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The plans, which are slated to be published Thursday in the Federal Register, award money to 10 different initiatives associated with a range of conservation goals, from reducing turtle strikes from boats to habitat protections to fishing education programs. The money for the programs in the 4th Open Ocean Restoration Plan comes from a federal consent decree with oil company BP, with restoration projects expected to receive up to $8.8 billion. BP was the operator of the Macondo well at the center of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which was named after a floating drilling rig contracted to work on the project. Advertisement In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico — which Trump renamed the Gulf of America via executive order earlier this year — was engulfed by an explosion that killed 11 workers. That incident stemmed from a gas leak and caused some 4 million barrels of oil to spill into the Gulf over three months. It was the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history and resulted in the nation's largest ever environmental damage penalties and settlements.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Record US Gulf Oil Output to Soften 2026 Production Decline
(Bloomberg) -- US oil production will likely decline next year, but the scale of the dropoff will be substantially reduced by an old source of new supplies: the Gulf of Mexico. Trump's Military Parade Has Washington Bracing for Tanks and Weaponry Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. NYC Mayoral Candidates All Agree on Building More Housing. But Where? Senator Calls for Closing Troubled ICE Detention Facility in New Mexico California Pitches Emergency Loans for LA, Local Transit Systems Producers in the body of water — which President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of America — will bring on 300,000 barrels of new daily output this year and a further 250,000 barrels in 2026 due to projects many years in the making, according to forecaster Wood Mackenzie Ltd. These will increase production in the region to more than 2 million barrels a day, about 40% higher than in 2020. The growth comes against a backdrop of slowing US shale production due to weaker oil prices, as onshore producers cut rigs and costs to counter rising supplies from OPEC and its allies. Overall US production will decline 0.4% to 13.37 million barrels a day next year, the first drop since 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration's Short-Term Energy Outlook released Tuesday. The Gulf's rising importance represents a turnaround from the past two decades, when the region — tarnished by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, spiraling costs and pandemic shutdowns — took a backseat to the shale boom that has made the US the world's largest oil producer. But now tumbling crude prices are hurting shale drillers while major, longer-term Gulf projects are starting to come online. 'Most people are focused on onshore, when the real growth this year will come from offshore,' Miles Sasser, a senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said in an interview. 'The projects in the Gulf of America are ramping up nicely, and that should come as a surprise to many.' Trump has promised to unleash US oil and gas production, and his administration is reworking policies to help boost flows, including from the Gulf. He has also created a National Energy Dominance Council to help expand production. But his global trade war and the OPEC+ supply increases that he has encouraged have hammered crude prices, spurring the pullback by shale drillers. Chevron Corp. will grow Gulf production 50% from last year, to 300,000 barrels a day by 2026. Shell Plc has Sparta, a 90,000 barrel-a-day project coming online in 2028, while BP Plc has a series of projects through the end of the decade that will increase production capacity by about 20% to more than 400,000 barrels a day. These are all coming at a time when frackers are warning US shale production may have peaked. Production growth in the Gulf has only outperformed shale in three of the past 10 years, and each of those instances came amid low oil prices and slowing demand, said Jesse Jones, a senior upstream analyst at Energy Aspects. 'Shale producers react more quickly to weaker prices,' he said. Chevron's most-recent developments break even at crude prices below $20 a barrel, making them among the lowest cost anywhere in the world, according to Bruce Niemeyer, the company's president of production in the Americas. Brent crude settled at just above $67 a barrel Monday, down 10% since April 1. 'If you can drive breakevens down, you make your investments more resilient, you make the company more resilient,' Niemeyer said in an interview. 'That's the ultimate scorecard.' The secret to the Gulf's rebound is a fundamental change in the offshore business model. When oil consistently traded at $100 a barrel between 2008 and 2015, producers designed large, complex and expensive production vessels. They've since focused on smaller, simpler structures. BP reduced the cost of its Mad Dog 2 project by more than half, to $9 billion, by the time it came online in 2023. Shell cut the expense of its Vito platform 70% from its initial design. Both companies say they their new approach is to 'design one, build many.' 'Deepwater is no longer high-cost by default,' Colette Hirstius, Shell's executive vice president for Gulf of America, said in response to questions. 'It's proving to be highly efficient, capital-lean and resilient' through the oil-price cycle. Chevron is working to fill up old production platforms rather than building new ones, Niemeyer said. Ballymore began producing its 75,000 barrels a day in April, but doesn't have a dedicated platform. Instead, the field is connected to its Blind Faith platform, which was built in 2008, through three miles of subsea pipelines, or 'tiebacks.' About 80% of Chevron's exploration leasehold is in tieback range of existing facilities. 'We begin with the end in mind,' Niemeyer said. 'That sets us up to be very disciplined in the design choices and execution, and that ultimately turns into falling breakeven' costs. Like all established oil fields, the Gulf faces limits. There haven't been any big new discoveries since 2017, when Shell struck oil in the Whale field, Wood Mackenzie's Sasser said. The region 'lacks high-impact projects that will sustain growth in the years to come,' he said. But Big Oil is demonstrating that technology can help overcome these obstacles. Chevron made the Anchor discovery in the Paleogene geologic strata in 2015, but its 440 million barrels were located six miles under the seabed at ultra-high pressure and temperatures. After years of working with industry suppliers to safely access the oil, Chevron began producing Anchor's oil in August at pressures of up to 20,000 pounds per square inch, among the highest in the world and equivalent to an elephant standing on a quarter. BP has discovered about 10 billion barrels of resources in the Paleogene and will begin producing from it through its Kaskida project in 2029. The Gulf is 'a key strategic region for BP' due to its high volumes and low costs, Andy Krieger, senior vice president for the Gulf of America and Canada, said in response to questions. 'That's a big reason why we've made significant investments in this region for many years,' he said, 'and why we fully intend to keep investing there, in a disciplined way, for many more.' (Updates with details from Energy Information Administration in the third paragraph.) New Grads Join Worst Entry-Level Job Market in Years American Mid: Hampton Inn's Good-Enough Formula for World Domination The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling What America's Pizza Economy Is Telling Us About the Real One Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. 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