Posted on 05/14/2010 10:22:38 AM PDT by Apparatchik
WASHINGTON — The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.
Those approvals, federal records show, include one for the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and resulting in thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf each day.
The Minerals Management Service, or M.M.S., also routinely overruled its staff biologists and engineers who raised concerns about the safety and the environmental impact of certain drilling proposals in the gulf and in Alaska, according to a half-dozen current and former agency scientists.
Those scientists said they were also regularly pressured by agency officials to change the findings of their internal studies if they predicted that an accident was likely to occur or if wildlife might be harmed.
Under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Minerals Management Service is required to get permits to allow drilling where it might harm endangered species or marine mammals.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is partly responsible for protecting endangered species and marine mammals. It has said on repeated occasions that drilling in the gulf affects these animals, but the minerals agency since January 2009 has approved at least three huge lease sales, 103 seismic blasting projects and 346 drilling plans. Agency records also show that permission for those projects and plans was granted without getting the permits required under federal law.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The list, ping
$89,000 in campaign contributions, more than to any other candidate, will buy plenty of favors....
LOL at your tag line, one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Has anyone confirmed this?
Why, thank you. :)
I guess most of the readers didn't make it down to the 6th paragraph of the article where it states, " ... but the minerals agency since January 2009 has approved at least three huge lease sales, 103 seismic blasting projects and 346 drilling plans."
What difference would it make to get yet another permit from yet another agency?
There was a failure in the mudding process apparently. No one makes that kind of mistake on purpose, and its not the kind of thing another permit with another few reams of paper would have stopped.
...and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.
You have to make a decision. Do you want to be energy independent, or not. Of the hundreds of billions we pay for fuel, do you want to pay that money into American pockets putting American workers to work, or do you want it to put some other nation's workers to work. Do you want to fund your own national treasury or someone else's.
The country that is willing to deal with the risks and hazards of oil production is the country that is going to get the big bucks. Countries that refuse get to wallow in their bankruptcy and unemployment and watch the dollar sink into the deep waters.
Q:
Why is the phrase “on your watch” not being thrown into every story?
Everything that happened from 2000-2008...the phrase “on Bush’s watch” was layered thick. Even tacit acknowledgements, “Well, perhaps prior administrations might bare some responsibility, but this happened on President Bush’s watch”.
Conservatives have to start using some of the in-your-face tactics of the left. They will crumble at that type of challenge.
I agree with your comments, they are right on the money.
My comments of course were directed at the writer of the piece, against the idea that a failure in the mudding process would have been prevented by yet another permit.
After watching O nationalize the car companies and the banks, it won't surprise me to see him move to nationalize the oil industry. This crisis, as badly as he has handled it, may in the end be the crisis he needs.
[After the disaster, Mr. Salazar said he would delay granting any new oil drilling permits. . .the minerals agency has issued at least five final approval permits to new drilling projects in the gulf since last week. . .Despite being shown records indicating otherwise, Ms. Barkoff said her agency had granted no new permits since Mr. Salazar made his announcement.]
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