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To: joseffy who wrote (443040)	8/28/2011 8:26:59 PM
From: FJB	6 Recommendations Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793801

ExxonMobil Sues Gov't for Canceling Deepwater Well Worth ‘Billions of Barrels of Oil’ http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/exxonmobil-sues-obama-administration-can Friday, August 26, 2011 By Matt Cover (AP photo) (CNSNews.com) – ExxonMobil, the world’s largest energy company, filed a lawsuit against the federal government for canceling an oil-drilling lease in the Gulf of Mexico that held “billions of barrels of oil,” according to the company. In the suit, filed Aug. 12 in federal court in Louisiana against Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar and related parties, Exxon alleges that the Interior Department made an “arbitrary, capricious” decision in canceling the deepwater leases, arguing that the government’s action “deprives ExxonMobil of property without due process of law.” ExxonMobil lawsuit filing..pdf At issue is an ExxonMobil project in a part of the Gulf of Mexico known as the Julia Field, which the company estimates holds “billions of barrels of oil.” ExxonMobil was in the process of connecting the wells drilled in the Julia Field to existing oil platforms in a nearby part of the Gulf when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) canceled the leases, accusing ExxonMobil in 2009 of not having a “commitment to production.” ExxonMobil had asked for a Suspension of Production (SOP) allowance in 2008 in order to have enough time to tie the wells in the Julia Field to the nearby production facility, something it said the government normally allows. However, ExxonMobil contends that in arguing it did not show a “commitment to production,” BOEMRE used criteria it had never applied before, and that did not exist anywhere in federal regulations. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar hosted an oil containment summit in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 2011. At the event he chided congressional lawmakers about passing legislation that would make his agency increase production of domestic oil and natural gas resources. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) “In denying ExxonMobil’s request for an SOP, the [BOEMRE] Regional Supervisor relied on a series of four “contingencies” that he determined prevented ExxonMobil from demonstrating a “commitment to production” as required by MMS regulations,” the company explained in its court filing. (MMS is the acronym for Minerals Management Service, the forerunner of BOEMRE in the Department of Interior.) “In citing these four ‘contingencies,’ MMS employed standards and criteria that are not set forth in the OCSLA, MMS regulations, any published MMS guidance, or any publicly available MMS decision responding to an SOP request,” stated ExxonMobil in its filing. The OCSLA is the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal law that governs drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and other off-shore areas. The government denied ExxonMobil’s request because the nearby production facility the company planned to use is operated by Chevron, not ExxonMobil, prompting BOEMRE to say that ExxonMobil could not demonstrate a “commitment to production” because it did not own or control the facility ExxonMobil had said it planned to use. However, ExxonMobil pointed out that Chevron had made plans to accommodate ExxonMobil’s new wells, and that in the event those plans did not work out, the oil company was prepared to build a separate production facility specifically for its Julia Fields leases. The company also noted that the government had approved other deepwater SOP requests and had never made an issue of which company actually operated a production rig that another company’s well was being tied to. Further, ExxonMobil said that BOEMRE (then the Minerals Management Service) never told the company what it needed to do to show a commitment to production, despite the fact that the company had already spent nearly $300 million drilling two oil wells. President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) “By the time of the MMS Decision, ExxonMobil and its co-venturers had spent more than three hundred million dollars on the Julia Discovery and had drilled two producible wells,” Exxon explained in its complaint. “Moreover, not once during the many meetings and communications between ExxonMobil and the MMS concerning ExxonMobil’s SOP application did the MMS clearly specify what ExxonMobil needed to do to receive approval of the requested SOP.” Because of this, Exxon accused the government of cancelling its Julia Field lease in an attempt to gain more revenue by selling the lease a second time. “Accordingly, by enabling Interior to grant new leases on blocks with proven reserves, cancelation of the Original Julia Leases would give Interior the opportunity to collect millions of dollars in bonuses and royalties that it otherwise would not be entitled to collect if the Original Julia Leases are not canceled.” The Interior Department has not responded to the lawsuit, but has 60 days from the Aug. 12 filing to do so. ExxonMobil employs more than 82,000 people and is the largest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world. In 2010, the company paid $21.6 billion in income taxes, which translates into a tax rate of 45 percent.

To: joseffy who wrote (443040)	8/28/2011 9:15:42 PM
From: goldworldnet	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793801

Bernice Albertine King (born March 28, 1963) is the second daughter and youngest child of civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Coretta Scott King. [1] Her older siblings are Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and the late Yolanda Denise King. Bernice is the only King child to become a minister. She was elected in 2009 as the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), but declined in January of 2011, citing disagreements with the organization's leadership. Due to her profile and skill in public speaking, King has been asked to speak around the world. Ebony magazine named her as one of their Ten of Tomorrow future leaders of the black community. She is also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Bernice was only five years old when her father died. At 17, she was invited to speak at the United Nations in the absence of her mother. She is a graduate of Douglass High School in Atlanta, attended Grinnell College in Iowa and she graduated from Spelman College with a degree in psychology. King says she once considered suicide before God intervened. At the age of 24, she decided to become a minister and in 1990 received a Master's degree in Divinity from the Candler School of Theology and a Juris Doctor in Law from Emory University School of Law. King is a member of the State Bar of Georgia. [2] With her brother Martin Luther King III, she has played an active part in reforming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference once led by their father. When she was elected President of SCLC on October 30, 2009, a position previously held by both her father and brother, she became the first woman to lead the group. In 1996, King published a collection of her sermons and speeches called Hard Questions, Heart Answers which received a positive review from USA Today. In 2000, she narrated the Lincoln Portrait at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Kiel. In 2004, Bernice King participated in a march against same-sex marriage in Atlanta. This action was in contrast to the advocacy of her mother, Coretta Scott King and her older sister Yolanda Denise King, both long-time outspoken supporters of gay rights. In 2006, King was with her mother when she died in a hospital in Mexico. King is attributed with manipulating her siblings to hold their mother's funeral at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, instead of Coretta's church home, Ebenezer Baptist Church. The King children allowed Coretta's body to lie in state at Ebenezer, where the funerals of their father and paternal grandparents were held. The decision to hold Coretta Scott King's funeral at a conservative congregation active in anti-gay work led to the protest of many civil rights activists, including Julian Bond who did not attend in protest to the decision against Coretta's wishes. On January 30, 2007, one year after the death of her mother Coretta Scott King, Bernice King founded the Be A King Scholarship at Spelman College (Atlanta, GA) in honor of her mother's legacy. Bernice King donated $100,000 of her personal funds, while $75,000 was donated from Home Depot and $15,000 from New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. The scholarship will be awarded to two rising seniors at Spelman college who are majoring in music, education or psychology. On December 14, 2007, at the State Bar of Georgia Headquarters, Bernice King was honored by the Georgia Alliance of African American Attorneys [1] by being presented with the "Commitment to Community" award for her work as an attorney and community leader. On January 20, 2009, she joined the CNN Situation Room with her brother, Martin Luther King III, to discuss the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. On July 7, 2009, Bernice spoke alongside her brother Martin Luther King III at the Staples Center in Los Angeles during a ceremony commemorating the life of Michael Jackson. In 2008, Bernice King and her brother Martin Luther King III brought suit against their brother Dexter, who brought a counter-suit against them over mismanagement of funds from the King Center. Dexter King articulated his distress at Bernice King's conservative religious views as departing from their father's legacy. [2] In October, 2009, the lawsuits were settled out of court. King was elected President and CEO of SCLC in October, 2009, but discord in the organization has prevented her taking that position. [3] She is a former elder at New Birth (resigned May 2011 [4]), a licensed attorney and member of the Georgia Bar, [5] and works as a mediator. Bernice King is not married and does not have any children. en.wikipedia.org * * *