Propublica: Can't find origin of MMS categorical exclusion to Gulf drilling companies

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As you may have heard, before the big BP disaster the government’s chief oil drilling regulator let most drilling go forward in the Gulf of Mexico with very little environmental review. Somehow, the Minerals Management Service decided that there was little chance of disaster and thus gave the entire central and western Gulf an exclusion from a requirement for comprehensive environmental reviews.
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That raises the question: When did the MMS do so many studies in the Gulf that it decided they were no longer necessary? And who approved that decision and why?

We’ve spent the better part of a month trying to unravel it, and the answer we have so far: The exclusion was created a long time ago, but not even the government knows exactly when or where it came from.

We do know a few things: 1) The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality ultimately gives the green light for establishing these exclusions. 2) This particular exclusion likely emerged during the early 1980s—we know that because Holly Doremus, an environmental law professor at UC Berkeley, appears to have found the earliest reference to this rule in the 1980 Federal Register.

more @
http://www.propublica.org/ion/blog/item/a-mystery-when-did-govt-exempt-gulf-drilling-from-detailed-enviro-reviews

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The article does praise Obama for his actions so far, but the timeline would seem troubling for democrats, as Carter was president in 1980.

Only little people pay for environmental reviews? Shades of Leona Helmsley.

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1. There were gas lines in 1979, and rationing in some places

The Iranian revolution was in 1979, and the Iraq/Iran war started in 1980. Both events drastically affected US oil imports. Remember Carter wearing a sweater for a speech, because he turned the heat in the White House down?*

That's probably the period that the regulation dates from.

* on edit: I just looked it up. It was the famous 'malaise' speech in '79, and he wasn't actually wearing a sweater.

[Trillo]

2. Sure, I remember reading about a bunch of that.

I also remember a generalized feeling at roughly the same generalized time that the end of oil was drawing near, and reading about many technologies that had they been adopted, may have helped. Someone had concepts for a nuclear powered car(!), as well as another one that would fly. Solar heating and cooling. Hydrogen was supposed to save us, or so I read many times.

I don't specifically remember there being a categorical exclusion granted to big oil-drilling companies, instead, it seemed that there was some kind of push in environmentalism, at least for little people, such as learning to recycle the cars oil instead of pouring it down a drain where it would find its way into water ways and eventually the ocean. Lots of exhaust controls getting placed on vehicles, yada yada. Turning down the thermostat on AC (which we didn't have anyway). Recycle those aluminum cans, recycle recycle recycle!

Another curious thing that happened in the 1970s, at least in Southern California, were the beginnings of the real-estate bubble. That may have been as early as 73-75, placing that timeline outside the Carter years (I think).

"pursuit of happiness?" No. Not by a long shot. Just a bunch of authoritarians telling us little folks what to do, how to do it, and simultaneously telling us how deficient we were, all while they apparently winked at their buddies in high places and no doubt had lots of laughs taking their gains to the (now) Too Big To Fail banks.

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3. While the environmental movement got some press coverage at the time...

...in the back rooms of Congress and the Federal bureaucracy, I'm sure the oil companies were exploiting the panic to get the exclusion. Everyone was worried about a permanent return to the gas rationing of the early 70's. The OilCo's could have easily pushed for carte blanche.

This was also in the late days of 'stagflation', having started gathering strength under Gerald (Whip Inflation Now!) Ford. Without cheap oil, it was easy to see how the economic deterioration could continue.

Not excusing a thing, I can still see how it could have happened at the time.