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Show World&Nati on Page 11 Friday, Nov. 5, 2010 Utah AG proposes Bowl Championship Series investigation WASHINGTON (AP) — Utah's attorney general met with Justice Department officials this week to discuss a possible federal investigation into college football's Bowl Championship Series. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is investigating the BCS for possible antitrust violations and is hoping to get the Justice Department to do so as well. "They are doing their due diligence," Shurtleff said in a telephone interview Thursday, a day after the meeting. "They had done their homework." Shurtleff said department officials did not commit to conducting an investigation. He said among those at the meeting was Gene Kimmelman, chief counsel for competition policy and intergovernmental relations in the department's antitrust division. Justice Department declined to comment on the meeting. In January, in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who had asked for an antitrust review, the department said the Obama administration was considering several steps that would review the legality of the BCS. The department said it was reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into the BCS and possible antitrust violations. Several lawmakers and many critics want college football to adopt a playoff system to determine the teams that play in the championship game. BCS executive director Bill Hancock said Thursday it was "hard to imagine a bigger waste of taxpayer money than to involve the government in college football." Under the BCS, the champions of six conferences have automatic bids to play in top-tier bowl games, while the other conferences don't. Those six conferences also receive AP Enterprise: World's oil thirst leading to environmental peril MIAMI (AP) — The world's thirst for crude is leading oil exploration companies into ever deeper waters and ventures fraught with environmental and political peril. The days when the industry could merely drill on land and wait for the oil — and the profits — to flow are coming to an end. Because of that, cornpanies feel compelled to sink wells at the bottom of deep oceans, inject chemicals into the ground to force oil to the surface, deal with unsavory regimes, or operate in some of the world's most environmentally sensitive and inaccessible spots, far from ports and decent roads. All those factors could make it difficult to move in equipment and clean up a spill. From the Arctic to Cuba to the coast of Nigeria, avoiding catastrophes like BP's Gulf of Mexico spill is likely to become increasingly difficult and require cooperation among countries that aren't used to working together. An Associated Press review of oil ventures around the world found plans to punch through layers of salt more than three miles beneath the ocean floor off the coast of Brazil, drill seven exploratory wells off Cuba and extract oil from crude-soaked sands on the Canadian prairie. Drilling is proceeding in countries with extremely weak regulations and a lack of skilled operators, and in geological settings much like the northern Gulf of Mexico, with high pressure and weak rock formations ripe for blowouts. Companies are seeking the new frontiers amid warnings from some analysts that worldwide oil production will peak and then decline as onshore wells dry up. It's not that oil itself is scarce — global reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion barrels — but getting to it requires large investments in treacherous places. "It's just getting harder to find this stuff. You're having to go to the end of the Earth or the bottoms of very deep oceans now," said Randy Udall, director of the nonprofit Community Office for Resource Efficiency in Aspen, Colo. BP CEO Bob Dudley argued last week that deep-water drilling is necessary despite the dangers because the world could be consuming 40 percent more energy by 2030. BP and other major oil companies say they are preparing for the risks and trying to find common solutions. Also, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers, a trade group, is talking with other industry organizations in the U.S., Australia, Brazil and Britain about preventing and responding to disasters, said executive director Michael Engell-Jensen. But so far, little has been done globally to come up with a universally accepted set of standards and response procedures. Diplomatic tensions could prevent effective cooperation among countries, and some projects already under way — such as a deep-water containment system that U.S. oil companies are building in the Gulf— are meant only for a particular area. In the meantime, the industry is pursuing some audacious projects. Exploration companies have discovered huge oil fields in the South Atlantic off Brazil, with deposits believed to exceed 8 billion barrels. Reaching them will require drilling not only in waters nearly two miles deep, but through salt layers up to three miles below the ocean floor. The BP well that blew out was in water a mile deep. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic region holds up to one-quarter of the world's undiscovered conventional oil and natural gas, including 90 billion barrels of crude — most of it offshore. Companies in the U.S., Russia, Norway, Denmark and Canada are stepping up preparations to drill there. Environmental groups have sued to prevent it. Cold and ice would hamper cleanup of a spill, they say, by making it hard to get people and equipment to the scene. And the region lacks the sunlight and abundance of microbes that are helping break down the oil in the Gulf. A major spill could injure or kill whales, polar bears, seals, walruses and many types of fish. Shell Oil, which plans to drill exploratory wells off Alaska, will have a response fleet constantly on hand with helicopters, boom, skimmers and other equipment for dealing with spills. "In the unlikely event of a discharge, they would be deployed and recovering oil within an hour," spokesman Curtis Smith said. In the western U.S., companies are targeting what the Energy Department says are billions of barrels of recoverable oil trapped within deposits of shale rock, which is composed of layers of claylike, fine-grain sediments. Mining and processing shale oil are a big source of greenhouse gas emissions. more money than the other conferences. Last year, the state legislature in Utah adopted a resolution calling for a playoff system to determine college football's national champion after an undefeated Utah was shut out of the national title game for the second time in four years. Next season, Utah will be moving into one of the conferences with an automatic bid. 4 I E1 ON SALE Noy. cAn) at PO2c4-msa ontINE A r: 10 first 1000 students 15 after 1000 student advance 20 student day of public advance $public 25clay of * stan_cl-up comedy 11 .0 . 1 0 kept con.cert hall doors: 7:00pm show: 8:00pm reserved seating A UtahStateUniversity I ASUSU ARTS & LECTURES Yikes! I had NO IDEA there was that much stuff there! I=> Past Issues: All the issues of !%. The Statesman from this year are ready to review. Look for "Our Most Recent Issue," and follow the links. 14> Photo Reprints: Have you seen a photo in The Statesman you like? One of you? Click on "Photo Reprints." I=> Multimedia: Slide shows of big campus events. 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