Trump eases rules for offshore drilling
The Trump administration is easing rules imposed on offshore oil and gas drilling six years after the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.
The decision won immediate praise from an offshore drilling group, but environmentalists said it would increase the risk of future disasters.
The changes, which will take effect Dec. 27, come as the administration seeks to expand offshore drilling into areas where it is currently banned and has scrapped an Obama-era policy to protect oceans and the Great Lakes, replacing it with one emphasizing economic growth.
A 48-page notice from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement published Friday in the Federal Register says the agency “has become aware that certain provisions in that rulemaking created potentially unduly burdensome requirements for oil and natural gas production operators without meaningfully increasing safety of the workers or protection of the environment.”
An offshore drilling industry group said it’s a positive step.
“The revisions develop a rule that reduces unnecessary burdens placed on industry, while still maintaining world-class safety and environmental protections. We have a rule that is not a safety rollback, but instead incorporates modern technological advances,” Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said in a news release.
CBS subpoenaed on Moonves conduct
CBS said Friday that a New York City prosecutor has subpoenaed the company for information related to sexual misconduct allegations that led to the ouster of longtime chief Les Moonves.
The company said in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it received subpoenas from the Manhattan District Attorney and New York City’s Commission on Human Rights and that it is cooperating.
Moonves resigned as chairman of CBS on Sept. 9, hours after The New Yorker published a story detailing a second round of ugly accusations against him. In total, a dozen women have alleged mistreatment, including forced oral sex, groping and retaliation if they resisted him.
Moonves has denied the allegations, though he said he had consensual relations with some of the women.
In a regulatory filing earlier this month, CBS said it would pay Moonves a $120 million severance if that investigation fails to find any evidence of sexual misconduct.
Honda recalls 1.4 million cars
Honda says it will recall 1.4 million U.S. cars to replace Takata front passenger air bag inflators. The company says the recall, which covers Honda and Acura vehicles, is part of an attempt to get ahead of a government mandated schedule of recalls on the Japanese-made air bags.
Honda says owners of the vehicles should schedule the free repair at authorized dealerships as soon as possible.
The Honda recalls are the fourth part of a five-phase plan announced by the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration in May of 2016. Honda says it is ahead of schedule with more than 77 percent of existing recalls repaired.
The inflators have resulted in the largest series of auto recalls in U.S. history, covering 37 million vehicles and about 50 million inflators.
Harvard endowment grows to $39 billion
Harvard University says its endowment has grown to $39.2 billion after returning 10 percent on its investments in the last fiscal year.
It marks a slight improvement over an 8.1 percent return that disappointed Harvard officials last year but still falls short of returns recently announced by some other elite universities.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says its investments returned 13.5 percent last year, while the University of Pennsylvania saw a return of 12.9 percent.
Harvard’s endowment chief, Narv Narvekar, said the school’s portfolio is “still in the early stages of a multi-year transition, with much work ahead.”
Further details about the endowment’s performance will be released in October.
Harvard’s endowment is the nation’s largest but has lagged in recent years. Narvekar was hired in 2016 to turn it around.