Per the WSJ, if the Obama Administation had not vigorously appealed a federal appeals court in D.C. decision to quash the permits for deep water drilling, including specifically that of the DeepWater, this disaster would NOT have happened. In hindsight, the Court nailed it by ruling that
the government was unprepared for a major spill at sea, relying on an "irrational" environmental analysis of the risks of offshore drilling.
But instead of accepting this decision, the administration appealed to the Court to reverse it based largely on loss of royalty revenues! I'm sorry, but if this is not Bushian at it's core, what is?
More below the fold...
This is really distressing to me, as it really seems to indicate that Obama's seeming concern for the environment was not enough to override the money aspect. And this after the IG report clearly revealed the abuse and the close relationships between MMS and the oil industry?? We should have known, perhaps, by his support of "clean coal" and nuclear. This article was a shocker and a disappointment to me. It was not that Obama and Kenny Boy were not proactive in correcting deficiencies, they were, in fact, favoring business as usual.