Environment, Politics, Society

Drill, Baby, Drill

As expected, President Obama is planning to lift the drilling moratorium and to return to his planned drilling program off pristine areas of the East Coast. While Obama is no longer claiming that oil rigs really do not spill much, it really does not matter much. Bureau head Michael Bromwich has announced that the six-month ban is unlikely to be renewed in a blow to environmentalists. One lasting change? The Obama Administration changed the name of the scandal-laden Minerals Management Service to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.


The Administration has been putting on a full court press with officials expressing relief that they can find no large amounts of oil left — brushing over the millions of gallons of toxic chemicals that they allowed BP to dump into the ocean to disperse the oil. Experts have objected that the Obama Administration has been actively downplaying research showing these chemicals remain in the food chain for many years. Administration officials have said that the health impact of these chemicals remains uncertain — leading others to question the decision to dump millions of gallons into the ocean.

The recent public offensive appears calculated in part to lift the ban. In the ultimate example of “out of sight out of mind,” Bromwich insists that he can “see no information so far that would justify extending the moratorium.”

Source: CNN

280 thoughts on “Drill, Baby, Drill”

  1. And if I may make a tactical suggestion: stay out of the circular firing squads.

  2. Buddha said:

    “I will stipulate that path to Hell is paved faster with the GOP in control. But paved it is. Paved with lobbyist graft and the blood of Americans.”

    Can we pave the way out with lobbyist blood and healthcare for all Americans? 😉

    Yissil said,

    “I’m a glass-half-empty kind of guy and if the Republicans get control of the senate or the house the glass is going to be all-empty.”

    I’m afraid that you’re right about that.

  3. I’m a glass-half-empty kind of guy and if the Republicans get control of the senate or the house the glass is going to be all-empty.

  4. What do you propose we do Buddah? Stay home? Vote for any wacko third party candidate as someone on here proposed? Concede the country to the tea party republican party?

  5. Byron,

    The point is that there is a probability distribution for the amount of oil that will be spilled in the gulf each year due to offshore drilling operations. I would expect industry experts to be able to determine this distribution with reasonable accuracy. If everyone knew the odds of spilling, say, 100 times the yearly seepage from one well and what the environmental and economic effects of such a spill would be then we could have an intelligent discussion about the risks vs. the cost of safety procedures. If the beginning of wisdom is knowing that you know nothing then the beginning of learning is knowing what you need to know.

    Buddha,

    Yeah, I’m a half-full guy but I just don’t think we should be surprised that the policy wonk has chose to concentrate on policy (especially in the midst of a recession) rather than take on the Constitutional issues of executive overreaching and I think painting his actions in this area with the same brush as you do people who intentionally worked to extend executive power as much as was possible no matter what the injury to the Constitution or our nation’s honor is disingenuous.

    You’re right about the anti-muslim hangover, though – I’m amazed at how vigorously that’s been rearing its ugly head lately…

  6. We are still suffering from an anti-muslim hangover in this country from Bush’s good versus evil style of thinking.

    No we’re not, there gonna build a mosque 2 blocks away from ground zero, to which Fox’s host of Red Eye, Greg Gutfeld vowed this week to build a gay Muslim bar right next to it. Then it’s been rumored that Chef Ramsey announced he was going to open up Hell’s Kitchen on the other side, serving up some really hot BBQ Pork.

  7. I will stipulate that path to Hell is paved faster with the GOP in control. But paved it is. Paved with lobbyist graft and the blood of Americans.

  8. Smom,

    So you have no issue with the following?:

    Claiming he has the authority to assassinate American citizens without any kind of Due Process.

    Not restoring habeas corpus.

    Not repealing the Patriot Act and in fact expanding upon it.

    Not prosecuting Bush and Cheney for war crimes and treason.
    ______

    Sorry, but wrong is wrong no matter who does it. Obama is a liar and an aider and abettor after the fact to the crimes of the Bush administration.

    As a nation, we are still on the path that ends badly. And Obama has tried to fix a mortal wound with a band-aid at best. Sold out is sold out no matter who holds the leash.

  10. The republicans threaten to filibuster most good things Obama tries to do thus proving he is not the emperor. His power is limited. Have not most our presidential choices been limited? I know the choice between Jimmy Carter and Jerry Ford was. The choice was stark between Gore and Bush just as it will be between Obama and whatever tea party sympathizer the republicans try to run against him. I don’t see the world strictly in terms of good and evil. I think Bush was the president that did that. We are still suffering from an anti-muslim hangover in this country from Bush’s good versus evil style of thinking.

  11. Slarti,

    You are despite agreeing with much of what you are saying, I am going to stipulate you are a “glass half full” kind of guy. Limited success isn’t the problem with Obama. It’s his failure to do anything substantive to restore the rule of law or indeed most of his truly important campaign promises (like a public option for health care). He has, in fact, embraced and furthered the police and surveillance state the traitorous war criminal Bush instigated. The President has the unilateral “right” to assassinate American citizens (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations)? Pardon me, but the fuck he does. That’s just another example of an overreaching Executive. He’s the President – NOT the Emperor. That’s as blatant a Due Process violation as Bush suspending habeas corpus – which Obama has also done nothing to restore. That little tidbit alone paints Obama as part of the problem with Washington, not the solution. The lesser of two evils isn’t good. It’s simply a different shade of evil.

  12. Jill,

    You’re like the left’s equivalent of Rush Limbaugh (only in the conservative/liberal hyperbole part, not the stupidity and lying parts ;-)). If I had the power put you on as many talk radio stations as he is, I’d do it but since I can’t, may I suggest that you don’t have to keep your rhetoric and outrage turned up to eleven all the time. Just because two things are bad doesn’t mean they are both the same. President Obama is very different from President Bush even if there are some areas where it’s hard to tell the difference. And given the fact that the Bush administration was politicizing the bureaucracy via burrowing right up until he left office, the Obama administration’s failure to fix the problem in time is unsurprising, if disappointing. For better or for worse, we picked President Obama two years ago and we’re stuck with him for another two years. While I have no problem admitting that there are things President Obama has done that I don’t agree with, you seem unwilling to admit that President Obama has gotten a great many good things done in extremely adverse political circumstances.

  13. My researches have sadly led me to the Clinton Administration. He didn’t go to jail, but Henry Cisneros lied to the fbi about how much he paid his mistress. 10k fine

  15. I was just googling to see who the most recent cabinet member to go to jail was. I still don’t know. The first was AB Falls, a Teapot Dome alumnus. Oil is like flypaper, in many ways.

    The most recent cabinet minister to resign while under investigation was Alphonso Jackson, Bush’s Secretary of HUD. Wouldn’t do company business with someone who said he didn’t like Bush. No convition.

    Lester Crawford, Bush head of the FDA, got convicted for conflict of inerest, but that’e not cabinet level. Suspended sentence anyway.

    Lots of small fry, abrahmoff and all that.

  16. TomDarch:

    you might want to review those spills. They are pipe lines and ships and one was a riser hit by a tug boat. There are a few rigs but most seem to be oil pipe lines, at least in the US. So based on that I would say drilling in the US is pretty safe but we might want to improve product delivery.

    So I guess your point is just shut down the oil industry so we don’t have any oil spills.

    By the way do you know the amount of natural seepage from the earth which occurs? Do you know how long it has been going on? Did you know there are huge tar volcanoes off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA from a large seepage 30,000 years ago?

  18. Hey Swathmore Mom you asked me about Rubio last week.

    Harry Reid stuck his foot in his mouth by saying I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a republican.

    There skin”s a tone darrker

    in which Rubio responds

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