Israel faces geopolitical tangle with natural gas

JERUSALEM (AP) — Recent discoveries of massive offshore natural gas deposits, set to begin flowing in the coming days, are turning into a mixed blessing for Israel.

The deposits are expected to provide Israel enough natural gas for decades and transform the country, famously empty of natural resources, into an energy exporter. Yet selling this gas overseas will require Israel to navigate a geo-political quagmire that risks angering allies and enemies alike. Amid this uncertainty, Israel still has not formulated an export policy.

"Instead of being an ingredient which serves to calm the tensions of the eastern Mediterranean, (the discoveries) provide instead another impetus for rivalry," said Simon Henderson, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "There is a reason this is often called diplomatically trapped gas."

Israel discovered two large fields, Tamar and the heftier Leviathan, in 2009 and 2010. Tamar, which holds an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet, is set to begin pumping to the Israeli market in the coming days, while Leviathan, which boasts an estimated 16 to 18 trillion cubic feet of gas, is expected to go online in 2016, the approximate time when exports are expected to begin.

The discoveries are just a portion of the huge reserves in the Levant Basin, which the United States Geological Survey estimated in 2010 holds some 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

While Israel's finds are minimal compared to gas giants Russia, Iran or Qatar, they are more than enough for the country's domestic needs and would enable the country to reduce its reliance on costlier and dirtier oil and coal. Nearby Cyprus has also become newly resource-rich, and Israel's other neighbors, including enemies, may discover their own deposits.

In all, Israel has just the world's 46th largest supply of proven natural gas reserves, according to the CIA Factbook. But the country's proximity to Middle Eastern and European markets could make it an important regional player. For oil companies hoping to profit from the new wealth, the biggest hurdle remains the lack of an export policy.

"The challenge we face now is ... the failure to decide on export," said Bini Zomer, an official in Israelwith Noble Energy, the Texas-based company that has led exploration efforts. "The policymakers seem to lack a sense of urgency."

The challenges are many. Cooperating with Cyprus risks antagonizing Turkey, an important one-time ally whose relations with Israel have greatly cooled in recent years. The neighboring Arab countries Egypt and Jordan might provide opportunity, albeit with some political risk. Europe is a potentially larger and more stable market, but reaching the continent is a logistical challenge and risks angering Russia.

Israel has already broached volatile turf by opening talks with Cyprus. The two countries, whose territorial waters border each other, are looking into how best to jointly exploit their mineral reserves. One option is to pipe the gas to Cyprus, where it could be processed for export to Europe and beyond.

The gas discoveries have helped to warm historically chilly ties with Cyprus, which has traditionally sided with the Palestinians and has looked on warily as Israel built military and trade relations with rival Turkey.

Israel's ties with Ankara deteriorated dramatically over the past three years since an Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla killed nine Turkish activists. The cooperation with Cyprus has further angered Turkey, which has claimed some of Cyprus' offshore supplies as its own.

Israel and Turkey announced last week that they were restoring full diplomatic relations after Israel apologized for the flotilla deaths. But relations remain cool and it remains unclear how Israel's links to Cyprus will shape up.

The Israel-Turkey rapprochement is on the minds of Cypriot authorities as future gas revenues are seen as the country's best hope to pull it out of the economic morass that has decimated its banking sector.

"I assure you that we are monitoring the situation and we will act accordingly to protect the country's sovereign rights," Cyprus' Commerce Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis recently said. He said the country's president, Nicos Anastasiades, is planning a trip to Israel to discuss energy cooperation matters.

Cyprus has looked to Israel to pool their respective gas finds in order to build a gas processing facility on the island that could be used to supply domestic demand and liquefy it for export.

Experts say the most obvious route to Europe from Israel would be through Cyprus, then to Turkey, but those traditional enmities could block such a solution. Cyprus fears that Israel may instead opt to sign a deal to pipe its excess gas to Turkey directly via a pipeline in order to reach European markets.

Brenda Shaffer, an expert on natural gas at Israel's Haifa University, noted that the renewed alliance opens the door to cooperation with Turkey, a large market and rising player on the global stage.

"Cyprus can never replace Turkey in terms of geopolitical value for Israel," she said.

Meanwhile, entering the European market risks placing Israel at odds with Russia, a natural gas juggernaut that supplies much of Europe. Russian energy giant Gazprom has shown interest in working with the consortium drilling off Israel's coast, which observers say may reflect a desire to ensure a role in the region's gas projects.

There are more challenges closer to home. The maritime border between enemies Lebanon and Israel is disputed. Although it appears no major gas sits in the contentious area, tensions have flared over the disagreement. The Hezbollah militant group, which battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006, has threatened to use force to protect what it says is Lebanon's natural wealth.

Any infrastructure Israel builds is vulnerable to attacks from the myriad militant groups in Egypt, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Sending gas to a processing plant in Egypt, one of the many ideas floated, is contingent upon whether the tenuous peace agreement between Israel and Egypt remains intact. Egypt's own gas exports to Israel have ground to a halt following more than a dozen pipeline attacks by militants in Egypt's Sinai desert.

But some opportunities are at hand. No longer reliant on Egypt, Israel will have a stable source of energy, along with a chance to strengthen ties with its neighbors by providing clean energy that is cheaper than oil.

An official from Israel's Energy Ministry said the government has "an interest" in providing energy to Jordan and the Palestinians. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has not made any firm decisions.

Jordan, in particular, makes sense for Israel. Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1994, and new commercial ties would help cement that peace.

Jordan, which has also seen its gas supplies disrupted by the repeated pipeline attacks in Egypt, would also benefit from a stable source of energy. These disruptions from Egypt have forced Jordan to use oil to fuel its electric plants.

A Jordanian government official said Jordan would be interested in Israeli gas "if it's cheap." He spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.

Although Israel has a head start, it has yet to determine how much of its gas will be sold abroad, how to ship it overseas and which markets it may serve.

A 2012 inter-ministerial report recommended that Israel preserve enough gas for itself for a 25-year period, leaving just over half of its estimated reserves for potential export. Those recommendations have yet to be adopted, and for now, only deals with Israel's national electricity provider and other local industry are in place.

Once it does forge its export policy, Israel will look to strike a balance between diplomacy and commercial viability.

"Gas is always very political," said Shaffer. "The politics have to support the commercial interests, but if the commercial interests aren't there, the politics aren't enough."

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Associated Press writers Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Calif. water managers despair over snowpack

Dry winter: Sierra snowpack measures half of normal and is already melting

Associated Press -

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- There's more bad news for California water users: the snow pack is just half the amount of normal and has already begun to melt.

After a wet fall, the state recorded the driest January and February on record, and March didn't fare much better.

Measurements taken Thursday show 28.5 inches of snow at 7,600 feet with a water content of just over a foot.

The sparse snow was particularly alarming for state water managers because this is the time of year it is supposed to be most plentiful.

Snowmelt provides about a third of the water used in households and on farms across California.

Rep. Don Young Apologizes for 'Wetbacks' Comment

Rep. Don Young, who used the term "wetbacks" to describe Mexican immigrants in a radio interviewThursday night, issued a full-scale apology this afternoon for using the derogatory slur after abarrage of criticism from Republicans and Democrats.

"I apologize for the insensitive term I used during an interview in Ketchikan, Alaska," Young, R-Alaska, wrote in his second statement of the past 24 hours. "There was no malice in my heart or intent to offend; it was a poor choice of words."

RELATED: There Is Outrage - but Tea Party Hispanics Silent Over Racial Slur

An earlier statement from Young excused his use of the smear as "a term that was commonly used" during his days growing up on his father's ranch in central California, but the 21-term congressman's second statement leaves no ambiguity about his remorse.

Don Young

"That word [wetbacks], and the negative attitudes that come with it, should be left in the 20th century, and I'm sorry that this has shifted our focus away from comprehensive immigration reform," he stated.

RELATED: Republicans Blast Don Young, Demand an Apology

Numerous lawmakers decried Young's short-lived defense earlier today, including House Speaker John Boehner, who said the remarks "were offensive and beneath the dignity" of the House. Boehner had called on Young to issue "an immediate apology."

Mike Anderson, Young's press secretary, said that the congressman is traveling in Alaska today and is not available for further comment.

Starving sea lion pups fill Calif. rescue centers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hundreds of starving sea lion pups are washing up on beaches from San Diegoto Santa Barbara, overwhelming rescue centers and leaving scientists scrambling to figure out why.

At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die.

It's gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationdeclared an "unusual mortality event." That will allow more scientists to join the search for the cause, Melin said.

Pups are normally weaned from their mothers in April.

Even the pups that are making it are markedly underweight, Melin said.

The most recent pups weighed at the breeding area on San Miguel Island were around 37 pounds, Melin said. They should weigh between 55 and 59 pounds by now, she said.

Melin said she doesn't know how the pups are making it to the mainland, but they must be using currents and swimming.

"That's a long way, and they are very small," she said. "They don't have a lot of fat, and the water is pretty cold. They are often dehydrated, which is typical with emaciation. It puts them in pretty bad condition."

Those landing on the mainland may have been looking for food if their mother stayed out foraging too long, Melin said.

Live sea lion strandings are nearly three times higher than the historical average, said Jim Milbury of the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA.

Between Jan. 1 and March 24, 948 pups were rescued, Milbury said. The bulk of those were in Los Angeles County, which had 395, followed by San Diego, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, he said. Last year, only about 100 pups needed saving during the same period.

At the Pacific Marine Mammal Care Center in Laguna Beach, there were 139 animals being cared for Friday. Of those, 131 were sea lion pups, said spokeswoman Melissa Sciacca. She said the center has treated more than 220 sea lion pups so far this year, while the center treated 118 in all of 2012.

Southern California rescue facilities have become so crowded they have had to start sending pups to Northern California, said Jeff Boehm, executive director at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which was caring for 30 starving pups.

Scientists were performing tests to determine if the problem is food availability, disease or both.

Biologists knew last spring that this year's supply of anchovies and sardines could be limited, Boehm said.

"These two species of fish are an extremely important part of California sea lions' diets, and females simply may not have been able to nurse their young sufficiently, resulting in abandonment, premature weaning and subsequent strandings," he said.

Besides anchovies and sardines, sea lions also eat squid and other ocean creatures. Routine testing of seafood is being done by state and federal agencies and consumer safety experts are working with NOAA to find the problem.

"No link has been established at this time between these sea lion strandings and any potential seafood safety issues," NOAA said in a statement.

There has been no sign of adult female mortality, Melin said. But the pups' situation on the beaches is so bad, rescuers have had to leave the worst of them in an effort to save the strongest ones, she said.

Scientists expect the death toll to rise in April when weaning is supposed to take place. They also expect it to move further north, Melin said.

Anyone who sees a stranded sea lion, dead or alive, is asked to call the nearest marine mammal center. Authorities say people should not touch the animal or let a pet near it, because sea lions can bite.

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Online:

National Marine Fisheries Service: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov

Rare Chinese Porpoises Dive Toward Extinction

A Yangtze finless porpoise found in Dongting lake, China on April 15 2012.

The porpoises lack a dorsal fin.

Giant pandas have become China's poster child for endangered species, but now another iconic animal in the country can claim to be even rarer than the bears.

There are just 1,000 individual Yangtze finless porpoises left in the wild, according to a new report. That's less than half of what a similar survey of the porpoises found six years ago.

The rapidly dwindling numbers have conservationists worried that the species could vanish from the wild as early as 2025.

"The species is moving fast toward its extinction," said Wang Ding, head of the expedition to count the porpoises and a professor at the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Yangtze finless porpoises, the only freshwater finless porpoise in the world, live mainly in the Yangtze River and China's Dongting and Poyang lakes. They are threatened by shrinking food resources and man-made disturbances like shipping traffic.

The expedition, which took place over 44 days last fall, comes after a similar trek along the Yangtze in 2007 failed to find any survivingBaiji dolphins, a close relative of the finless porpoise that was subsequently declared functionally extinct.

The new report showed that some finless porpoises are splintering off into relatively isolated groups, which could hurt their ability to reproduce. The scientists also noted that more of the animals seemed to be flocking to wharf and port areas, perhaps to look for food.??

"They may risk their lives for rich fish bait resources there," Wang said in a statement from the World Wildlife Fund, a conservation group involved in the report. "But busy shipping traffic close to the port areas poses a threat to the survival of finless porpoise."

Other finless porpoises seemed to be avoiding human disturbances and were spotted gathering in dense groups in waters not open to ship traffic. But that strategy could backfire — in these waters, the animals risk getting caught in illegal fishing traps.

As part of their conservation recommendations, the report authors urge for a year-round fishing ban in all river dolphin reserves, and for new reserves to be established in Poyang Lake and along the Yangtze.

The report, called the 2012 Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Survey Report, was released Thursday (March 28).

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