WTF? As reported in the New York Times and according to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, The Dept. of the Interior and MMS routinely exempted all off-shore oil drilling from even basic environmental review under the "Categorical Exclusion" provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); AND CONTINUED TO DO SO EVEN IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE GULF SPILL.
>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14agency.html
>http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/offshore-oil-05-18-2010.html
If the allegations are proven true, this is perhaps grossest regulatory failure and dereliction of duty I have ever seen. To make a finding of "categorical exclusion," the MMS must conclude that the proposed action -- i.e. drilling a 18,000 ft. hole in the earth's crust under 5,000 feet of water, and any resulting oil spill -- has almost no chance of causing a material environmental impact.
This is preposterous on its face. And yet, No Environmental Impact Statements(EIS)were required for BPs drilling in the Gulf with the Deepwater Horizon rig or countless other off shore projects. There have been hundreds of such findings, including many after the Gulf Oil Spill occurred. WTF? http://www.democracynow.org/...
The money quote from Kieran Suckling, executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity:
Kieran KIERAN SUCKLING: Well, when a federal government is going to approve a project, it has to go through an environmental review. But for projects that have very, very little impact like building an outhouse or a hiking trail, they can use something called a categorical exclusion and say there’s no impact here at all so we don’t need to spend energy or time doing a review. Well, we looked at the oil drilling permits being issued by the Minerals Management Service in the Gulf, and we were shocked to find out that they were approving hundreds of massive oil drilling permits using this categorical exclusion instead of doing a full environmental impact study. And then, we found out that BP’s drilling permit—the very one that exploded—was done under this loophole and so it was never reviewed by the federal government at all. It was just rubber-stamped.In order to "Categorically Exclude" a federal action -- i.e. the issuance of a permit for deep water oil drilling -- from requirements of NEPA that would otherwise require extensive study of the potential impacts of the off-shore drilling
This travesty has already been noted by others, http://www.dailykos.com/... But it bears repeating and demands public outrage.
While the President has addressed the disaster with his usual eloquence,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
The Center For Biological Diversity argues that the reforms proposed are inadequate primarily because they still will leave the fox in charge of the hen house.
“Ken Salazar came into office announcing, ‘There is a new sheriff in town,’ and promised to reform the deeply corrupt Minerals Management Service. He took action regarding personal, criminal actions, but did absolutely nothing to address the agency’s dangerous practice of rubber-stamping offshore oil-drilling permits. Salazar is long-time offshore oil-drilling booster and recipient of oil company campaign contributions. As a senator, he criticized the MMS for not issuing enough oil-drilling permits and pushed legislation that opened more than 8 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to new offshore oil drilling. His mission as the MMS’s overseer has been to promote more offshore oil drilling, not to fix the agency’s thoroughly corrupt environmental review process.
“The president had the opportunity today to take clear, decisive action to address the offshore oil-drilling scandal; instead, he chose to circle the horses around Secretary Salazar. That won’t stop the scandal from spreading and won’t protect the Gulf of Mexico from another disastrous oil spill.
“The president should immediately rescind his March, 2010 decision to expand offshore oil drilling to the Atlantic Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska. He should cancel Shell Oil’s permit to begin a very dangerous offshore oil drilling project in Alaska this summer. He should put a real stop to all new offshore drilling approvals, and he should order the MMS to halt all oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico approved without environmental review.”
“Ken Salazar’s assertion that splitting MMS in two will stop the abuses is wrong; the action will work no better than the ‘moratorium’ on new offshore drilling approvals he announced on May 6, 2010. The MMS has continued to approve new offshore drilling without any environmental review, some as recently as yesterday. The Salazar ‘moratorium’ was smoke and mirrors, and the splitting of the MMS in two is not much better.”
“The heart of the MMS scandal — approving drilling with no environmental review — is in no way solved or even addressed by Salazar’s plan, because it continues to allow the revenue-generating arm of the MMS to be in charge of approving drilling permits.”
www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/mms-05-14-2010.html