I hope you know that President Obama's admin continues to rubber stamp oil industry leases to drill!

[RiverStone]

I voted for President Obama. In areas of personal liberties, reproductive freedom, the SCOTUS, and tax reform (to name a few), we have progressed positively. Sadly however, President Obama's appointment of Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary showed an outright indifference to environmental issues. His admin's continued rubber stamping of oil industry requests to drill reflects a business as usual attitude that's no better than the record of our past horrendous president from Texas.

If President Obama truly is an enlightened man, he will completely dismantle the corrupt Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service from the ground up. Giving BP the pass on safety and inspections led to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf. If he does not learn from past mistakes, his hands will remain covered in oil - and he will be the "change president" no more!

License To Drill - Mother Jones 6/17/10

At his long-awaited press conference on the Gulf oil disaster last month, President Obama announced a moratorium on new oil drilling and exploration for six months. "We can't do this stuff if we don't have confidence that we can prevent crises like this from happening again," he declared. But while existing rigs may be out of commission for the near future, the administration hasn't exactly put the brakes on new oil and gas drilling ventures. In recent weeks, the government has quietly approved the sale of more than 400 new leases for vast swaths of the Gulf of Mexico. And these contracts—which mark the first step in the drilling process—were subjected to the same slapdash environmental oversight that failed to prevent the BP catastrophe.

The region was included in a plan created by the Bush administration's Department of the Interior to lease new areas of the Gulf to the oil and gas industries. But it was Obama's Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, who gave the go-ahead for the sale of Lease 213—6,800 tracts covering 36 million acres off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in November 2009. The sale—which was held on March 17 this year in the New Orleans Superdome—attracted $1.3 billion in bids. Since then, the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has approved the sale of 448 of those tracts, 198 of them in deepwater, which is defined as more than 656 feet below the sea. BP is the proud new leaser of 13 of those tracts.

The lease sale is the first step in the oil drilling process. Companies must first obtain the right to drill the tracts before they can devise exploration plans, which must be approved by MMS.

And that's where the problem lies. MMS has been notorious for rubber-stamping the oil industry's plans. The lease for the well that's spewing oil into the Gulf, the Macondo, was sold in March 2008. The exploration plan for that well was granted a "categorical exclusion" from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in April 2009, paving the way for drilling to begin.

more: http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/06/new-drilling-leases-gulf-of-mexico

[indepat]

1. Failure to cleanse Federal agencies of junior's policies and minions at the earliest possible date

has inevitably come back to haunt/bite this administration in the ass, this one big-/huge-time. :P

[vaberella]

6. Actually Obama put Salazar in place for that.

Obama even said Salazar failed to do the clean up fast enough---they fired a lot of people but he didn't do enough of them.

[indepat]

8. Yeah, drill, baby, drill Salazar was the man to get right on it

:P

[vaberella]

13. I think Obama realized that and made a less than stellar remark on Salazar's performance. n/t

[Phx_Dem]

2. I guess that's why the oil companies have taken Obama Admin to court

to lift the drilling moratorium, because Obama gives them everything they want.

Beyond stupid.

[vaberella]

4. Hah. n/t

[tekisui]

5. These are two separate issues.

The suit is about specific operations that have been halted for 6 months.

The MMS has approved 448 leases to oil companies and is not requiring the environmental impact studies be performed or submitted.

It isn't an either/or.

[RiverStone]

7. Exactly!

[TheKentuckian]

12. Too much often falls well short of EVERYTHING

Any argument that Big Oil has not had it too easy is absurd on it's face.

The fact they are not accepting a completely reasonable moratorium pending an investigation and review of the situation and how to move ahead with oversight in light of their acknowledged lack of ability to stop and contain a similar blow out is criminally insane and far from rational.

Maybe the most constructive thing on this site would to ban the usage of the names of politicians so that the issues can be discussed without making everything about rallying behind the figures.

[vaberella]

3. Sadly, if I hate it. But, I understand it. Two things on this:

1) For all intents and purposes we need oil---people may think after this we're oil free, we'll that's not the case. The way we use energy it's unrealistic to assume that oil is out of our lives. Did you know that Lousiana wants to save their marshes but don't want to end oil drilling?! Why do you think that is? Because for a good number, their livelihood is dependent on drilling. While we depend on it to live.

2) There is a moratorium and that moratorium for all intents and purposes can be extended at any time if need be. Which means no drilling until new rules and regs.


So...I'm not upset by this.

[Moochy]

9. Just heard this auhor on Counterspin from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

K&R

[polichick]

10. As long as Salazar heads Interior, we won't see change we can believe in...

If the prez is serious, he'll put someone in charge with no ties to the gas and oil industry and an impeccable reputation for putting natural resources first.

Until action matches rhetoric, it's smoke and mirrors.

[Catherina]

11. Rec'd. I voted for him too but need to see real change before I believe anything anymore

Watch this heartbreaking video http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x478138

People have had enough and are taking matters into their own hands because the hope and faith are gone.

Wake up President Obama. WAKE UP!