How the White House Delivered a Crushing Economic Blow to the Gulf
Here’s the book-jacket teaser: A major U.S. environmental disaster strikes. As Coast Guard and other heroes struggle to contain the unprecedented damage, a different scene unfolds in a dimly lit conference room in Washington. A small group of high-ranking political hacks and overzealous ideologues see an opportunity to manipulate the situation to advance their agenda. They doctor a key report on the disaster by experts in order to justify shutting down all exploration and new production. They explain the sweeping decision as something sound science requires.
Several weeks later, members of Congress and a few in the media dig deeper into the alleged science behind bringing an entire industry to a screeching halt. That’s when the cover-up begins.
A catchy political thriller? If only it were fiction. Instead, it’s what seems to have happened in the Obama administration following the BP disaster.
And as a U.S. senator from Louisiana, I suffered through seeing it firsthand.
Some aspects of the 30-day experts’ report seemed suspect to me from the beginning. So I called for an inspector general to investigate the Obama administration’s claim that science supported the decision to shut down the Gulf. That investigation revealed that high-ranking officials in the Department of the Interior and the White House inappropriately manipulated the 30-day experts’ report to justify the offshore drilling moratorium — all in violation of the Information Quality Act and contrary to sound science.
On June 21, 2010, new reports revealed that the scientists in question in fact opposed the moratorium. They were shocked that their report was doctored to justify it. They even actively lobbied Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to soften the ban.
However, on Nov. 10, 2010, Mary Kendall, the inspector general for the Interior Department investigation, concluded that Interior officials were really only guilty of sloppy editing. She determined that Interior’s moving some words around in the experts’ report was more akin to a clerical error, and that Interior Secretary Salazar had already apologized for that.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. In May 2011, a government whistleblower came forward. He alleged that Kendall in fact colluded with Interior officials during her “independent” investigation. And then, after exploring this claim, a congressional committee unveiled specific materials that showed that Kendall had actually attended meetings in which Interior officials reviewed working drafts of the very same report she later was tasked with investigating — a clear conflict which Kendall never revealed.
Once confronted with this startling conflict, Kendall confirmed her attendance in those meetings to USA Today, claiming she “was an active listener” but not an “active participant in these meetings.”
As Mark Twain once famously said: “Truth is stranger than fiction.” Unfortunately, it can also have serious, real-world consequences, unlike a cleverly written political thriller.
The biggest consequence in this case is that major energy exploration and new production in the Gulf of Mexico was basically turned off for more than six months. Many thousands of workers directly involved in that work were laid off. Many more in oilfield service and related support businesses lost their jobs and livelihoods or were forced to split from their families and seek work overseas. Eleven massive deepwater rigs left the Gulf of Mexico for redeployment in Brazil, Africa, even Australia. Other rigs that were headed to the Gulf turned away and shallow-water rigs were idled. The economic hit to my state of Louisiana was actually bigger than that of the recent recession.
In light of all of this, I’ve joined with other Senate colleagues from the Gulf region in calling for an independent Integrity Committee to conduct a thorough and accurate investigation and get to the bottom of the apparent inspector general cover-up. They are actively reviewing the matter now.
It’s pretty outrageous that politics seem to have tempered significantly the inspector general’s investigation. And that politics and ideology, not sound science, is what led to the unprecedented moratorium decision in the first place.
It would all make for one heck of a political thriller. If only it were fiction.
At what point does this go beyond being an “ethics” violation, and start being criminal. I am more than 100% certain that if this type of doctoring was exposed in a private company, it would be justification for criminal charges. Why not here. I know the current DOJ won’t do it, but the next one god willing, might.
Your frustration is shared. Senator Vitter lays down the facts indicating extremely unethical, if not criminal, activity and where will it all lead? The answer is nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. How is that possible? Example after example indicates that unethical and criminal behavior is tolerable in a Democrat administration. In a Republican administration such behavior yields public scorn and/or dismissal from office and in some cases jail time. Put a “D” behind your name and lying, cheating, and stealing is dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders and some incoherent mumbling from Jay Carney to a bored press corps. If a reporter does have the balls to ask a probing question he/she is hooted at and laughed off the scene. The “in-the-tank” media and impotent Republican leadership must be the next targets in a very aggressive fashion right after Obama is, pray to God, thrown out on his corrupt butt in November. Prediction: Senator Vitter’s revelations will disappear into the same black hole as Fast and Furious….and John Boehner will have hardly noticed.
Well said Yooper, well said.
The first order of business, after the 2012 elections, needs to be replacing Boehner as Speaker of the House.
I concur!!!
ditto and THAT is exactly problems are not resolved simply by trading Ds for Rs. The rot in DC is systemic and the Boehner/McConnell wing is just as complicit as the Reid/Pelosi cabal. They both love big govt and big spending; the only difference is in priorities.
Ask most that serve as contractors on science projects for EPA. In the last few years, it has become standard practice to be ‘pressured’ to deliver a product that meets the predetermined outcome directed by the client. This means throwing out data and revising conclusions.
If the contractor does not deliver the conclusion the agency wants, the agency will make ‘final revisions’ and make the analysis final. Too often we find complete revisions contrary to findings and actual science. But, too late, we have signed our names to it.
If the scientist protests, refuses to make the changes, or retracts his name, he is guaranteed to no longer have employment.
The requirements to have a science advisory review in leu of public review has failed. The review board is stacked with hand selected ‘experts’ who are only allowed to address certain issues pre-selected by EPA hacks.
The requirement that the cost/benefit outcome of any rules and legislative Act is widely overlooked and contractors are ordered to swing the numbers, deaths, costs, outcomes etc, in the manner directed. The ends justifiy all means.
While EPA and DHS served a valuable service at one point, they have been taken over as a political tool. Valuable resources have been taken away from real, current, actual, measurable contamination sites and high risks. All resources have been realigned to politically expedient fads, leaving real world hazards unaddressed.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I urge everyone at PJ Media to view the new film “2016 Obama’s America.” Until I saw it, I believed that the drumbeat of malfeasance exhibited by this President and his administration was due mainly to incompetence. No longer. Dinesh D’Souza makes a strong case that what Obama has done to America for the past three-and-three-quarters years was done not by naive incompetence, but by design.
D’Souza argues that a bitter anti-capitalist ideologue, mentored by communists and hard-line “progressives”, is bent on “transforming” America into a second-rate power in an attempt to create a world as envisioned by his anti-colonial, anti-White, anti-Western Kenyan father.
A major plank in that program is to enviserate America’s energy industry. Why else would he ban oil recovery with his Gulf Oil Moratorium while, at the same time, issue guaranteed taxpayer-funded loans to Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil to finance the development of THEIR Gulf oil recovery program? Why would a President use taxpayer dollars to finance America’s energy competitors? Why would he effectively kill the Keystone Pipeline that would have reduced our dependence on Middle Eastern oil and has forced Canada to open negotiations with the Red Chinese as the alternate recipient of Canadian oil? Why else would he spend billions of taxpayer dollars on pie-in-the-sky “alternative energy” projects that even the most-basic analysis showed were bankrupt from the beginning? Why has he directed his EPA to find ways to stymie fracking operations on Federal lands? And why has he targeted the coal industry, which mines and sells America’s cheapest and most abundant energy resource, for complete and ultimate destruction?
It beggars belief that he and his administration can be this incompetent. See “2016″ for a much more reasonable explanation
It’s worse than you think. I read this excerpt (below) at Diana West’s blog, in which she describes the findings of two authors, Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott, in their new book “Fool Me Twice: Obama’s Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed.”
“In meticulous detail, the authors lay out the plans of Obama and his allies to, among other things: reconceive of U.S. defense as a fight against “climate change,” national sovereignty and other leftist bogeymen; “green”-ify the U.S. energy industry; open U.S. borders and register illegal aliens who are soon to be given amnesty by Obama (and who overwhelmingly vote Democrat); and, of course, move to a single-payer government health-care system. From the morass of technical jargon and policy wonkdom the authors sift through emerges a terrifyingly sharp image of centralized federal control of practically everything – even political dissent on the airwaves via the so-called Fairness Doctrine.”
And I can see, from Sen. Vitter’s account herein described, how easy it is for TRAITORS to manipulate events — and paperwork — to achieve their goals. As Germany was de-Nazified after WWII, it is glaringly obvious that America needs to de-leftify in order to have any hope of regaining liberty for her people.
The next administration might also investigate how and why the Horizon accident actually occurred. I spent several years with the oil industry, Schlumberger and ARCO and believe me the Oil Industry does not scrimp and save when they have many millions of dollars invested in exploration. Questions, Why the small BOP? How did the explosion actually happen? How did the gas accumulate and where? Why was the resulting fire fought with water instead of foam?
After watching this administration for four years a sane person will question all things that are done by them. Corruption is their middle name and corruption is their standard model. If Obama does not win the election he will need to watch his back for democrats always require paybacks and he will be the cause for them to be cast into purgatory for the next twenty years. Goodbye Obama…..
If Obama is going to continue his war against Arizona, Texas and Louisiana he really should go to Congress and ask for a formal declaration. It’s been well past 90 days.
We really do need to start firing people in government, like Mary Kendall, who lie. More and more the government is mistrusted while at the same time that same government tries to take more control of our lies. That cannot continue and will end in a large explosion of one kind or another.
Rick, I for one am sick of the term “resignation,” forced or otherwise. I want a commitment from anyone elected into office of full enforcement of the law, including perp walks. Enough is enough.
Government is a Parasite. This incident is just one of many. Barofsky has written a book about his experiences as the IG over the TAPR. He saw the same type of criminal behavior. The Obama Administration is the most corrupt and subversive Admin in our History. If he gets re-elected our country will be ripped to shreds!
And if Obama is not reelected our country will be torn apart by the thugs working with Obama.
So either way, we are headed into a revolution. Either we, the producing citizens, will be at war with those who want to continue to live off of our earnings or we will be in a revolution trying to save our Nation and our Freedoms for the tyranny of the mob.
Either way life is going to be a struggle as we try to right this ship of state.
And as if that was not enough of a problem, we still have the New World Order crowd who want to join up under the United Nations and become a huge screwed up Socialist experiment. Shish – sometimes you wonder what people are thinking about or with.
We are in a situation where there is no one to stop the President and his men.
The Justice Department and the MSM are under his control. The internet and talk-radio are the only conduits for truth.
We are not too far removed from a totalitarian government. If reelected, Obama will have us in the league of Venezuela, Cuba, Soviet Union and 1930′s Germany.
President Obama has no respect for the limitations of Congress or the Judiciary.
He is a petulant, spoiled child who has no idea what he doesn’t know.
It wasn’t politics, but ideology.
In the progressive mental universe, energy = evil. Period. Their ostensible support for Holy Wind and Holy Sun is a scam, like the technologies themselves. It is pointless to tell them that their Holy Grails will never be able to supply the energy needs of a technological society. They already know that, and in fact are counting on it.
Because their goal is to destroy that society. Ours. In the belief that they can build a pre-industrial, agrarian-socialist Utopia on the ruins thereof. Well, a Utopia for themselves, as the rulers, at least. (Hell for everyone else- who survives, that is.)
It’s time we stopped fooling ourselves about the goals and objectives of our “complex thinkers” in the environmental Mafia, just like we need to do likewise with Islamists. Both seek to destroy most of us, and rule over the survivors with an iron fist- no velvet glove required. Both in pursuit of “re-creating” an imaginary Paradise that never existed to begin with.
You cannot effectively deal with an enemy without first admitting that he is an enemy, and understanding what he dreams of doing to you.
And understanding that it makes not one damned bit of difference if his goals are completely insane. All that matters is if he believes he can make it real.
That’s generally all it takes to create a Holocaust.
clear ether
eon
Environmentalism has moved beyond ideology. It’s religion. The EPA needs to be disbanded on First Amendment grounds.
As the ass-clown ideologues in DC see it, this whole energy shutdown is a two and three-fer. One, they get to shut down energy producing entities. Two, they get to put evil energy producing employees out of work and three, they get to funnel more money to green energy boondoggles, thus further draining the cash reserves of the people.
I still submit that the nefarious undercurrent of this whole government cabal is to spend us into the poorhouse by simply burning cash on anything and everything that has no real tangible return. Unions, Soyndra, Cash for clunkers (where even some very nice, high-dollar and potentially collectible cars were destroyed), spend spend spend spend. Only compare to previous administrations, they only use the argument of “it’s for the children” or “it’s for the poor” as a shameless front for getting money to spend on—-nothing.
It wouldn’t be so bad were it not for the constant ribald scolding that captain dumbass who sits in the president’s seat gives us all and especially aims it at republicans. The words, “whiny, vindictive, angry teenager” come to mind. But he knows what he’s doing by getting the moronic democrat minions to believe that it’s so badly needed to keep shoveling cash into the furnace or the fires of prosperity will go out.
It’s like nothing I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime. I picture truckloads of cash being backed up to huge furnaces while men shovel it in, smiling, being happy that they’re “saving the economy and the planet”. Other men are taking some of that money and carrying it away for their own uses.
There were a few other things about the Deep Water Horizon oil spill that reeks of subterfuge and skullduggery. There was the blowout; no sabotage was ever suspected by the media or government officials. The failure of the blowout preventer failing to function properly; again, no criminal intention was suspected. The estimates of how much oil was going into the Gulf of Mexico; first it was 5,000 bbl/day, then it was pushed upwards to 100,000 bbl/day; but where was all the oil washing up on the beach? And then there is the convenience of how the disaster played into Obama’s energy policy, just as the coal mine disaster a month prior was convenient to Obama’s policy.
The Gulf of Mexico has had voluminous natural oil seeps for centuries. Nature being what it is, a whole series of bacteria has developed which thrives on petroleum. In the government ‘sky is falling’ scenarios, those bacteria didn’t exist, the better to extort big bucks from BP. In the real world, the bacteria got to work and reduced the spill volumes, hence there wasn’t an Exxon Valdez bathtub ring completely surrounding the Gulf of Mexico.
The one unequivocal success of the Obama Administration is their energy policy. I know some have said that Hillary Clinton should replace Biden but the logical choice, the proven choice, is Ken Salazar. He’s done everything right, he’s worked night and day, week in and week out, to implement Obama’s mandate that energy prices “will necessarily skyrocket”. Isn’t it time that Obama gets the full recognition that he deserves? Isn’t it time that Ken Salazar is appropriately rewarded?
Join the effort to add Ken Salazar to the ticket and “get high” on energy prices!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JOziMfz9_Y
Isn’t this just Obama’s MO? Everywhere you look, everything he touches. Lies, law breaking, cover ups, more lies, bulllying, stomping on rights and division of power, fraud after fraud. Road to serfdom and tyranny.
Senator Vitter;
“And as a U.S. senator from Louisiana, I suffered through seeing it firsthand.”
As a mud-boat sailor in the “Cajun Navy”, let me correct you on this, sir.
YOU did not “suffer” through a DAMNED thing. My shipmates and I, and all of us, ashore and afloat, who work on and in support of those rigs were the ones that suffered.
It offends me that you think you had anything near the tragedies that the Obama Administration’s drilling moratorium caused…are you so removed from your constituents that you do not know of the marriages that ended, the homes that were lost, and the anxiety that was caused because ONE rig at ONE well had a “Company Man” who wanted to play “cowboy” because the project was behind schedule and over-budget?
In a later paragraph, you indicate that you are aware at some level of the pain that this tyranny caused.
So…what are you actually DOING about it?
“In light of all of this, I’ve joined with other Senate colleagues from the Gulf region in calling for an independent Integrity Committee to conduct a thorough and accurate investigation and get to the bottom of the apparent inspector general cover-up. They are actively reviewing the matter now.”
That’s it? Is that all? Everyone who lost a job in the Moratorium had NOTHING to do with the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon disaster, and the best you can do is call fopr an inquiry?
I would think immediate impeachment proceedings against Ken Salazar and Mary Kendall for malfeasance and conflict of interest would be the very LEAST that one who purports to represent the people of Louisiana should do.
Turn-to, Senator, action is called for…not words.
Bilgeman, as a USN Vietnam combat vet, I totally agree with your frustrations.
But this, I fear, is is what our nation has come to. Yooper’s reply to #1 Jacob’s post is spot on.
Unless… we the people have a weee bit of an awakening, and translate our growing anger into votes this November.
America really has a opportunity to “make a statement” this election…
…one that would provide a true mandate for the reforms so desperately needed.
I still have that faith.
Amen! You are so right!
Call me a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy nut, but at the time of the disaster, I looked for a list of the people lost in the explosion and fire.
I never found such a list. I would be curious to know if any of the deceased belonged or had ever belonged to one of the enviro-whacko groups.
Hopefully, those 11 men on the drill floor died instantly from the overpressure of the explosion and did not live long enough to suffer the agonies of burning to death.
Not a way any sane person would choose to die.
In any event, there wasn’t enough of them left to recover, as the fire was hot enough and burned long enough to melt steel and burn through the aluminum helo-deck platform.
They were cremated and then carbonized.
Never ascribe to malice what can adequately explained by carelessness and stupidity.
Maybe you can emulate the Senator and “launch an inquiry”.
BP should have dad records of all who were on the rig at the time. If they didn’t, they don’t have any business being in that business.
The fact that Haliburton evacuated their crew says a lot about BP’s culture.
Old School, do you recall the reports of a submarine, rumored to be of Chinese origin, in the area prior to the rig exploding? Might the rig have gotten a little help from “our friends,” so the moratorium could be set in place? I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist, but where this bunch in D.C. is concerned, coincidence runs too rampant to swallow much of anything they report, say or do.
Senators using prostitutes would also make one heck of a political thriller!
Only libs are concerned with people’s private sex lives and what they do in their own bedrooms.
Libs fraudulently waive tha banner of being open, tolerant, all accepting, free.
Meanwhile they direct the entire nation on what to do and when, passing out morality and norm condemnations while excusing themselves.
You must be a lib. Your comment is a waste of digital electrons and of no interest to any of us.
…or the President’s Secret Service security detail employing Colombian whores.
I’m much more concerned with abuses originating in/adjacent to the Oval Office; a senator is not the icon of the free world.
Lately, neither is the President.
But then for me, they never were.
I worship God, not Man you see.
At the time, Robert Bae whom was one of the scientists came forward to announce the fraudulent conclusion of the report. If you now search Yahoo for the incident, if you can make any sense of it, it appears some company perpetrated a transgression.
This is the “Memory Hole” that Winston Smith worked furiously at in “1984.”
This is just more proof that these ‘deep thinkers’ never get far when they think out what the consequences of their actions might produce — fuel prices are climbing once again – and once again these ass-clowns have failed to understand the connection between cause and effect.
Lets hope they don’t realize that they are causing voters to vote for Romney/Ryan – effecting a bouncing of their asses out of DC.
ANOTHER case of transparency, no wonder I keep calling the president obozo, our clown in chief, as the laughs keep coming.
Wonder how the White House is Laughing with the NEWSWEEK Cover?????
Seems the people may get the last laugh and prove Lincoln right, You can fool some of the people all of the time—obozo voters, all of the people some of the time–those that helped elected this economic dunce but you can’t fool all the people all the time the American public come November.
Obozo is far from an economic dunce; he and his handlers know exactly what they’re doing. And if they believe polling data, they must be panicked that they’re running out of time to destroy capitalism and the U.S.A., making them … and him … doubly dangerous. Perilous times lie between now and the next swearing in, assuming Chief Justice Roberts is up to administering the oath correctly.
Surprise, surprise! The members of the Obama administration are zealous, arbitrary and anti-progress, anti-business, anti-capitalism, and will do anything legal, illegal or extra legal to get their end goals: kill capitalism and rise, Phoenix ( not the one in Arizona)-like into a new utopian society. In that society they can dictate what is right and wrong, none of this pesky Christianity or Rule of Law.
Surprised? Shouldn’t be!
The question, then. When energy is made illegal, how will the work get done? Muscle power, sure, but who will be the next set of slaves? Can you say raaaacism?
ta
Thank you, Sen. Vitter. It would be most helpful if you ran a series on this issue. Sen. Inhoffe has been actively involved as well and we geatly appreciate your work.
This ‘Political Massaging’ problem (to put it lightly) is not constrained to Presidential directives to EPA/Coast Guard. The same strong-arming to enforce political agendas is easily visible in DHS, USDA, FDA, ICE and border Patrol.
The outcomes are clear: true issues, risks and problems are overlooked to focus on political agenda driven topics that are non-existent or of low impact. The outcome is no change or reduction in those agencys’ performance measures such as a reduction in disaster response, crime reduction, risk and hazard reduction, prevention.
This has been the banner for this admin: Ignore real issues, create pretend problems and crisis, nothing is improved. Witness all the spending on the economy with no measurable outcome because the base problems are still promoted.
When I blog on Huff po, the gulf oil spill is one of my favorite points to present to the koolaid drinkers. It would be helpful if you would write about the topics that were modified by the admin and the outcomes.
For example:
–LA and TX colleges and universities relied heavily on the gas and oil royalties. By shutting down Gulf royalties, Obama cut off resources to students and cut off royalties to states and to the fed.
–Under OPA, a drop of oil in water is a federal spill. Why did Obama have EPA R-6, Coast Guard and response contractors sit on the sidelines for months?
–Why did Obama wait until the oil spread, hit land and the states began to bill the Feds for response before doing anything?
–Why did the Obama Admin ignore science and fact that shutting down active drill sites would create more spill and gretly increasing the rish and hazard of another major release?
Every Pres and admin will be confronted with a disaster or crisis. The measure of leadershpi is how they handle it, reduce it and respond. This admin has failed on every crisis and calamity we have had.
Your right.
— Dispersant at the wellhead was a mistake. The oil should have been allowed to rise to the surface where it could be burned or captured.
—Also, If Obama would have let the Norwegians into the Gulf with their deep water booms and other deep water equipment there would have no oil on the beaches.
America is living through a melt down of personal integrity. There is no defense, no cure. No citizen has the resources to expose a liar in the highest levels of Government. We learned this fact from the Nuremberg trials, of the “in crowd”, in which the universal defense for murdering 65 million human beings is that, “I was just following orders.”
The BP well blow out was caused by managers who cut corners to meet cost and schedule targets. Managers who miss these targets, in the private sector, lose their employment. These managers dominated their technical people to rubber stamp dangerous practices. It resulted in the death of eleven rig workers and the destruction of tens of thousands of livelihoods. The latter was due, in direct consequence, to purposeful actions in Washington D.C., the drilling moratorium. Why would any government intentionally destroy their citizens’ careers? The answer came from Chicago, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.” Kick your hydrocarbon opponent when he is down.
The certain result is a total melt down in trust. Any scientific, or policy statement coming from Washington D. C. is rightfully suspect. With private sector jobs on the line, the only certainty is that the bureaucrats will get paid. Can you trust scientists, engineers, admirals, CEOs, cabinet secretaries, Senators, or your President? In one word, NO.
Specifically, where BP diddled the canine was after they decided that the well wasn’t worth developing. At that point, it became a liability, and they weren’t interested in capping it correctly. We can’t have that. When regulation doesn’t prevent that, the tort system is supposed to. But that doesn’t work when all they have to do is donate to the right slush fund, and the plaintiffs go away.
There was plenty of FAIL to go around, both on BP’s part, and on the part of the government.
‘As Coast Guard and other heroes struggle to contain the unprecedented damage’
…and pump so much weight of water into the burning rig that it capsizes, sinks
and snaps the pipe, thus _causing_ the oil leak. That’s when the cover-up begins.
Have you ever actually BEEN on a semi-submersible drilling rig?
You can spray all the water you like onto the drill-floor, and you will have a greater chance of sinking your own boat from a busted flange at the fire-pump sea chest than of sinking the rig.
The drilling floor is open to the elements 24/7/365.
Semi-subs are NOT ships.
Those rigs ride out hurricanes, buddy…they have to.
Obama is still putting companies out of business.
http://www.capoliticalreview.com/trending/as-atp-oil-files-for-bankruptcy-ceo-blames-obama-for-companys-collapse/?utm_source=CAPoliticalReview.com&utm_campaign=2cedacb75c-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email
And why all the fuss and furor now? It was obvious at the outset, predictable in fact by those who had long ago realized the true nature of the environmental movement, a zealotry evidenced by a rabid hatred for Capitalism and the industrial growth that results, growth greatly in need of fuel for its survival, fuel of a type and quantity that can yet only be provided by the “dreaded” fossil types.
In their eyes, intentionally masked by a feigned concern for the Gulf region and the health and welfare of the nation, they saw a golden opportunity to indulge in what they do best, stifle the production of fuels of the fossil type while, at the same time, indulge in their favorite fantasy that the government can insert itself in the free market and influence “desired” outcomes through taxpayer funded subsidies. The people of the Gulf region, the country and the economic health and security of the nation are of little importance. Sacrifices must be made in order to achieve the noble, magnificent paradigm shifts that only they, the intellectual, classically educated, self certified intelligentsia, in collusion with politicians besotted with the same grandiose notions and blind acceptance of the dire predictions of impending environmental disaster (global warming), are capable of “saving the world from its greedy, environmentally irresponsible self.”
It will ever be thus until these smug, narcissistic, zealots are sent packing back to the ivory towers from whence they came. They are completely useless for any practical endeavor and downright dangerous in any position of authority as should have long ago been obvious.
It is an absolute mystery to me that BP and Transocean, and their stockholders, have not brought civil and criminal action against these people.
Company reputations were destroyed and stockholders’ personal wealth was impacted by 50%.
A lot of high-flying government flunkies ought to be sent to prison for this!
It wasn’t BP who got hurt by this, for the most part. It was all the other companies who were doing it right.
What this really is is collective punishment.
Investigating the actions of this president seems to be a full time job!
What I have always wondered is – why the explosion in the first place – who checked up on ‘the why’ in that case!
It’s almost -“wipe that happening away and lets get on with the restrictive actions that will cripple this oil business for a long time to come” – and they did – and got away with it!
Indicative of the same kind of ‘unsound science’ used to promote global warming, or Climate change or whatever they are calling it now. When science becomes political it is no longer science.
I really thought it was rotten how the report and the people who contributed honestly to it was manipulated. It was really hard to swallow how the court stuck down the moratorium and Salazar just rewrote it and reinstituted it. It’s hard to believe how the principle of law is ignored and manipulated these days. I should be happy that someone is still trying to do something about this but find it hard to feel optimistic of any traction–but all best wishes on trying.
Off thread I know, don’t know if Senator Vitter will read comments, but if so, is there any basis in fact of an akula poking around without anyone knowing for a couple of weeks in the gulf? I don’t really want to know, just hope someone professional does know.
At the time it was pretty obvious to any Southerner what was going on. Liberal community organizers trained in Chicago political warfare determined to bring to heel a bloc of red-staters whose antipathy for the current administration was no secret. If they could crush the economy by attacks on at least three major industries, oil, fishing, and tourism, thereby rendering large numbers unemployed and eligible for federal transfer payments, they could “convert” a large number of those unemployed to dependent clients of the bloated modern administrative state, and therefore possible voters for more Democrats. I wouldn’t say it was a conspiracy per se before the event, but they certainly weren’t going to let a crisis go to waste.
I remember watching this whole nightmare in deep interest. You see , it was around the time of my political awakening after Obamacare. Amen, I woke up to what my federal government has become. I could not help thinking as I watched all the barriers Obama and others put up to interfere with the clean up , especially watching Bobby Jindahl , that this interference was deliberate to make the situation worse to justify a permanent moratorium. And , low and behold these sick anti-American freaks have all but killed off oil drilling here in America. it is so insidious that Obama and his wackos would knowingly destroy more jobs, cause more misery to the economy and for the workers and their families. I was so frustrated watching this all play out. Obama arrogantly denies us the use of OUR resources, gives American taxpayer dollars to Columbia to build refineries and gave billions to Soros’ company Petro-Bras for drilling in Brazil and then has the audacity to announce to Brazil , we will be their best customer. How in the heck does any American not of the fringe left support this madness ? They sit around and cry over high gas prices, then give their messiah a pass for helping drive the prices of gas and food even higher. Not to mention the tax revenues lost to local communities. This is madness on steroids . OMG 2012 !
Sorry Vitter, another investigation does not feed the bulldog. Is the science that was used to shut everything down false? y or n. Did the original report have words changed or repositioned from the original report? y or n.
If both of the answers are yes, then no more committee investigations, call the liars out and expose everyone. Simple. Are you a Senator yes or no? Are you concerned about your own skeletons? y or n. If not then get to work.
walks like a duck, quacks ….
Fifteen prominent scientists volunteered to peer review the government’s review of the possible causes of the Deep Water Horizon. To make a long story shorter, the scientists agreed with the government’s initial findings regarding the causes and they signed off stating that they concurred with the report. However, when the report was completed, Secretary Salazar added a section recommending that all deep water rigs in the gulf be shut down until the it could be determined that they were operationally safe (different words, and more to it). The final report was organized so that the scientists’ statement agreement with the government’s initial findings appeared after the Secretary’s recommendation for a moratorium. Thus, the implication was that the scientists agreed that all deep water drilling should be shut down in the gulf. This report was part of a request for a moratorium given to a federal judge in New Orleans who, when he saw it, nearly laughed it out of court. He said something to the effect that it was absolutely ridicules to close down all the oil rigs operating in the Gulf because one of them had had a problem. This came to the attention of the scientists, Seven or eight of whom wrote a letter of protest to their Senators and to Governor Jindal stating explicitly that they had not recommended a moratorium. On April 28, 2010 acting IG Mary Kendall sent Secretary Salazar a letter pointing out that after a thorough review of Interior and its agencies, the reviewing committee could find evidence that only one of Interior’s agencies had any policies or practices based on scientific integrity at all, the USGS. From my observations following the management of wild horses and burros managed by DOI/BLM, NPS, FWS and USDA/ there is no regard for science. In fact, if the leaders of the agency had any respect for science, their policies and practices would be far different. It is likely that the amount of litigation would go down if the public were not so outraged by the faiure of government to follow our own laws, the over-reach of government authority, incompetent government decisions (made by people who should not be making them). The information DOI/BLM puts out is often inaccurate and in some cases recognized by the NAS as inaccurate for as long as three decades. There is no accoutabililty, no meaningful government oversight. I don’t care if a person is a Democrat or a Republican; we desperately need good leaders.
The liberal Dem WAR ON AMERICAN DOMESTIC ENERGY goes on and on. The facts are that these so called moratoriums on not only oil, but shale tar fracking, gas, and the building of nuclear plants is a knife in the heart of energy independence from our enemies. Obama knows that. He is beholden to enviro radicals and thinks that Solyndra works. Yikes. Oh and when will green ever run our military machine? Never unless using green is an item to BANKRUPT it too as all the other socialist baloney is doing to our free enterprise system. And Vitter doesn’t even bring in coal. The war on coal in Pa. , Ohio, WVA, the Dakotas, Kent. and other areas in Appal. is appalling. When one sees coal workers at a Romney event, they one knows that that war on coal may not be working either.
We have a big problem with green energy, and that is that it requires an enormous amount of water in order to convert the wind and sun to electricity. One of the biggest accelerators of climate change in this country is from the millions of acres in the West that have been devoted to cattle grazing. These areas have been deforested, and in some areas grass has been grazed to the roots. People laught at the idea that cows could produce enough methane gas to have much of an effect on global warming, but I think it more a combination of all the decisions that particularly our public lands have been managed. First, there are very few trees to absorb the CO2 as the West was converted into large grassland ranges. Cattle have polluted and destroyed a lot of the riparian areas. Because the BLM has wrongfully removed herds of free-roaming wild horses from their management areas, the land has been deprived of the nutrients in their feces that would held to reseed and nurture the land creating a greater variety of grasses and a healthier range. Horses and cows eat similar forages, but do not necessarily eat the same grass. But the greedy ranchers did not want to share the federal lands with the federally protected horses, so now we have large, destructive wild files over millions of acres in the West because so much of the grass is of the dry and brittle variety. Plus there are few forests to slow the fires down. Horses have been removed for mining when drains massive amount of water from the ground. So thanks to a level of land, water, and natural resource mismanagement by agencies managed by Interior and the dubious integrity of the Secretary who couldn’t find science if you handed him a telescope. Nothing that Interior has touched has happened it by accident. Long before President Obama was elected, he had the opportunity to get to know Secretary Salazar while he was in the Senate as well as Senator Reid. These guys have a plan—that includes putting a geothermal energy plant in the middle of Nevada, the driest state in the West. Before you come down too hard on the EPA you might want to pause for a moment of gratitude instead because they are the only people who care a twit about whether or not people in the West have clean drinking water. The Obama Interior has been granting mining permits which use tons of water and put contaminated water back into the ground—maybe in an acquirer near you—without doing Environmental Impact Statements or Environmental Assessments. A good way to make sure people don’t get worried about contaminated drinking water is to get rid of wild horses, so no one gets worried if a few turn up suffering from an unexplained illness or dead on the range.