This Administration is Spewing Something Brown- and it Ain’t Oil!
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I am increasingly growing frustrated, disgusted, and disappointed with the Obama administration. I didn’t vote for an anti-environmental, non-progressive across-the-aisle-reaching mocha version of McCain.
On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was halting offshore drilling temporarily. Fantastic! Yet despite the recent disaster in the gulf, the administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico. Already Shell oil plans on starting exploratory drilling off the Alaska coast.
These exemptions are “categorical exclusions” that waive companies from having to perform environmental impact studies on the areas they plan on drilling. Such studies would include things like estimates of damages caused by a spill and the effects on wildlife and ecosystems. Sounds reasonable, right?
So why would the The Minerals Management Service (MMS) grant the ill-fated British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon project a “categorical exclusion?”
What reason could there possibly be for not having to do a study?
Well apparently there is a loophole in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that allows for such ridiculous excuses to not play by the rules. Exemptions can be granted as long as the sites in question are: not relying on new or unusual technology; not located inside areas prone to seismic activity; not having hazardous bottom conditions; not in a marine sanctuary.
MMS is also supposed to assess the impact on biological and archeological resources. Since there is a already a ton of information on the gulf area, merely a cursory review of those old studies was deemed to be enough. Let’s not forget that the MMS is notorious for scandal– literally in bed with oil and gas companies. So did BP really expect to have to do any homework?
From a JetBlue article by Alan Foljambe:
(The NEPA loophole) was designed for “minimally intrusive” projects such as outhouses and hiking trails. Without the exclusion, British Petroleum would have been required to produce a report that included a study of the probable damages caused by a blow out or spill.
BP stated in their permit application that a spill was “unlikely,” and claimed that if a spill did occur it would cause “no significant adverse impacts.” The company’s optimistic scenario echoes that of the MMS itself, which conducted a study in 2007 of the potential ecological impacts of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and concluded that a deep water spill would not reach the shoreline and would not exceed 4,600 barrels.
Current estimates of the total release of oil from the Deepwater Horizon to date vary from 75,000 to 300,000 barrels.
On April 23, 2010, two days after the explosion, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that “The president still continues to believe the great majority of [offshore oil drilling] can be done safely, securely and without any harm to the environment… I don’t honestly think [the disaster] opens up a whole new series of questions, because, you know, in all honesty I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last.
Safe offshore drilling is about as believable as “sustainable whaling.” This kind of crap might be business as usual for the oil-loving Cheney and Bush administration, but it sure as hell isn’t what I was expecting from a supposedly pro-environment Obama white house.
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I can’t believe you all expected more. Crazy kids. 🙂
All you critics of Obama have got very short memories. I hope you never have to yearn for the good old days of the Obama White House.
I’m finding out now that punching us liberals and progressives, if you call yourself that, has become a sport for this administration. I busted tail and told eveyone that PO was the best thing since sliced bread. I am certain Bee could tell you stories how positive I was when things looked bad. Now, meh, I will end up voting for him because he is a dem, but I won’t be going out of my way to help him get back in if this is the way things are going to be over the next couple years. Then I remember, it’s only been nearly two years, all this did not just happen yesterday you know. The question for me then becomes, how long am I supposed to wait for my pony? Great read Mother Hen.
ain’t no pony. Wall St owns him and the Dems just like the Reps. Check out the voting on the Brown/Kauffman “too big to fail” amendment to limit bank size-which Obama opposed. It failed cause Dems voted against it, 30-27. Ended up losing 33-61 yesterday.Banks poured in a lot of lobbyist $. No pony, no reform, no health care. No more Gulf of Mexico,looks like.
This whole thing puzzles me. I cannot help but think he has a long-range plan, although I’m with MM. If he votes to kill whales he is off my friends list.
My disgust crested with the health insurance bailout. So this is what I’d expected, unfortunately. Obama’s supporters consistently defend him, saying it’s the best that can be done under the circumstances. If that’s so, a case can be made that lobbyists are so entrenched there’s nothing to be done. I’m not that cynical yet.
It really is hard to get a handle on what is coming out of the White House in the past months. I too expected more, much more, although Obama is proving to be a capable politician and sometimes I think he is playing to the mob to take them out of the argument, that is an old political trick. I want him to remember us over here, it wasn’t the drill baby drill crowd who voted for him.
Well said Holte!
Agreed! Every single word. Great post.