U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404118.html?sub=AR

[maddezmom]

1. says 2009 in the article

:hi:

[depakid]

7. oops

And people wonder why it's an anti-incumbent year....

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. MMS sounds like a staging area for a clown car.

That place needs to be cleaned out.
Better yet, the people that Bush packed in there should be forced to come down here and
lick up the oil.

[Roland99]

3. Still shaking my head that RFK, Jr wasn't offered the EPA job.

[Lorien]

5. RFK jr. is a liberal, which makes him a "fucking retard" in wormtongue's view

they only install industry insiders and others who pander to the corporate crooks that own our government. If the past year hasn't served as our National wake up call to take backour government and re-regulate runaway industry then I don't know if it's possible to change our trajectory.

[Roland99]

10. I know.

:(

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. The Bush era 'packed' rats need to be (politely) shown the door. Too many are sitting at desks

ready to flip down their desk photo of Bush when any new Obama staff walk in.

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of great long term governmental employees who have worked on behalf of quality governance for many different administrations -I know some- but the Bush era "burrowers" need to go!

[Angry Dragon]

6. It seems that MMS is not doing their job

Firings and jail

Same people that were caught having sex and parties.

[skip fox]

8. A good reporter will ask: Lobbying??? How?

Through what conduits did BP lobby? "Encouraging" (dontations to campaigns) senators and congressmen to call MMS???? If so, we want names.

And knowing what The Washington Post can do when it wants . . .!

[Jennicut]

9. Guys, the MMS was run into the ground by Bush.

Under the Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, the Interior Department's maintenance backlog climbed from $5 billion to $8.7 billion, despite Bush's campaign pledges to eliminate it completely. Of the agency under Bush's leadership, Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney has cited a "culture of fear" and of "ethical failure." Devaney has also said, "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior."

Gale Norton, Interior Secretary under George W. Bush from 2001-2006, resigned due to connections with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department appointed by Norton in 2002, also resigned after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for industry.< On July 20, 2007, MacDonald's "inappropriate influence" led H. Dale Hall, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, to order a review of eight endangered species decisions in which the former deputy assistant secretary was involved. Hall has called MacDonald's disputed decisions "a blemish on the scientific integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior." On 17 September 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to more than triple the habitat of the California red-legged frog, citing political manipulation by Julie MacDonald. In a government report released in December 2008,[8> Inspector General Devaney called MacDonald's management "abrupt and abrasive, if not abusive," and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who commissioned the report, attributed the "untold waste of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars" to MacDonald's actions.

On September 10, 2008, Inspector General Devaney found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service. In a cover memo, Devaney wrote “A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency. According to the report, eight officials accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski, and paintball outings; meals; drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game, and a Colorado Rockies baseball game. The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.” According to the New York Times, "The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_the_Interior#Controversy

S. Elizabeth (Liz) Birnbaum assumed duties as Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) on July 15, 2009.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerals_Management_Service

A lot of cleanup needs to take place in the MMS.