Obama Endorsed Offshore Drilling Without Asking His Own Oceans AgencyJust weeks before the Gulf oil spill, the Obama administration announced a massive expansion of offshore drilling. The proposal to open up hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin territory along the eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast and within the Arctic Ocean shocked enviros......... So a massive expansion of offshore drilling remains on the table, even as hopes dim for the broader plan happening anytime soon.
Now it seems that it's largely up to the president's Oil Spill Commission to determine how to proceed on offshore drilling.
But from what the commissioners have said previously, this is a question of how, not if; we shouldn't expect them to advise the Obama administration to changes its plan to expand offshore oil and gas development.
Which is why it was telling Wednesday as the commission held its first hearing in Washington, DC, and repeatedly returned to the question of who, exactly, endorsed the drilling expansion in the first place.
Among the witnesses were Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Nancy Sutley,
head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
At three points in their hourlong appearance, commission members asked them to clarify whether their offices had been consulted
before the vast expansion of offshore drilling was announced. (It was asked repeatedly because it took three tries to get a clear answer on the subject.)
Commission Co-Chair Bob Graham, a former senator and governor from Florida, pointed to Obama's own statement on the day the expansion was announced, in which he noted that it was "not a decision that I've made lightly," but "one that Ken and I—as well as Carol Browner, my energy advisor, and others in my administration—looked at closely for more than a year." (Ken, of course, refers to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.)
The answer from both Sutley and Lubchenco about whether they'd been asked to give their opinion on the plan: Nope.
Now, Sutley's job description at CEQ is mostly confined to making sure that federal agencies uphold the National Environmental Protection Act in their decisionmaking. Any involved on the part of CEQ would come down the line as decisions are made about lease sales or permitting.
But Lubchenco's role as the head of NOAA is much more central here.
This is the agency charged with protecting ocean and coastal resources and responsible for evaluating
the extent to which drilling operations might impact endangered species, marine mammals, or fisheries.
One would hope that its guidance in the expansion plan would be crucial;
but while Lubchenco said her agency offered comments on previous leasing plans
and there was "formal and informal agency discussion at various points in this process,"
NOAA was not asked to approve or disapprove of the plan.
snip
"You say now you were consulted, but were not part of the group that advised the president on the ultimate decision?"
asked Graham. "That's correct," Lubchenco replied. Nor was her agency asked if it had the resources available to properly execute the additional responsibilities that this expansion would create, she said.
At another point in the hearing, she noted that her agency is already "seriously hampered by a lack of resources" and time to do much of the oversight work it would like to do.
The decision, Lubchenco and Sutely indicated, was in the hands of the Department of Interior.
This really makes you wonder what agencies they did consult about the final decision, if not NOAA. It also makes you wonder what this means for the expansion plan going forward
snip
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/08/remember-obamas-big-drilling-expansion-plan********************************************************************
Environmental advisors shut out of Obama's off-shore oil-drilling decision by: Paul Rosenberg
Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 15:00
Robert Gibbs:
"I hear these people saying he's like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested.... I mean, it's crazy."
Robert Gibbs, report for drug testing. Robert Gibbs, report for drug testing:
Two of President Obama's top environmental advisers told a panel investigating the cause of the BP oil spill Wednesday that they did not provide the environmental and scientific basis for the administration's new five-year plan expanding oil and gas drilling off the nation's coasts.
Speaking before the presidential oil spill commission, Jane Lubchenco, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's administrator, and Nancy Sutley, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, said that while they did offer comments about the proposal, the key decisions were made by the president and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversees U.S. oil and gas policy under federal law....
The chairmen of the commission told reporters that Wednesday's testimony surprised and disappointed them.
Graham said that he would have expected NOAA and the Council on Environmental Quality to be in on the discussions, adding that he was surprised by testimony that they were not.
"I'm disappointed that the Council on Environmental Quality particularly would not have been included," said
Reilly, who led the EPA during the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
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