Salazar: House GOP drilling bills show ‘amnesia’ about BP spill

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/155589-salazar-house-gop-drilling-bills-show-amnesia-about-bp-spill

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday slammed House GOP bills that would mandate much wider offshore drilling and faster development, alleging they reflect “amnesia” about the catastrophic BP well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico that’s a week shy of its one-year anniversary.

“When you have gone through a horrific national crisis, which the Deepwater Horizon was, it’s important that you learn the lessons from the Deepwater Horizon, and that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past, and much of the legislation that I have seen bandied around – especially with the House Republicans – is almost as if the Deepwater Horizon-Macondo well incident never happened,” Salazar told reporters at Interior headquarters.

“We can’t afford to take that approach to the future of the nation’s energy security,” Salazar added. He said another blowout akin to the uncontained rupture of BP’s Macondo well without the capacity to contain it “would probably mean death to oil-and-gas development in America’s oceans.”

His comments to reporters come a day before the House Natural Resources Committee will consider three bills sponsored by Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), who has long alleged the White House is stymieing U.S. energy production.

plan to boost offshore drilling
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/152445-senior-house-republican-unveils-leadership-backed-plan-to-boost-offshore-drilling

[Drale]

1. O no they remember the oil spill well

they just don't give a damn about the environment because they can just buy a new environment when the old one is broken right?

[polichick]

2. Isn't this the same guy who has started handing out new leases?

[BobbyBoring]

3. One thing America always has plenty of

Amnesia! Won't be long before we forget about Fukushima and start building more Nuke plants!

[gratuitous]

4. What does BP or Exxon extracting oil have to do with the nation's energy security?

As soon as that sweet, sweet crude burbles up out of the wellhead, it belongs to the company what drilled it. And it would be irresponsible in the extreme for Exxon or BP or Chevron or whoever to sell that oil to the United States if they can get a better price somewhere else. But let's all watch another soothing commercial from the oil and natural gas industry about all the jobs they create, and forget about all that pecuniary stuff, which is very confusing for the likes of us!

[taterguy]

5. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we waste more gas than we could pump offshore

If the answer is no then we probably should drill.

If the answer is yes then we need to stop wasting gas, but we can't even have a discussion about that.

Whenever someone suggests reducing consumption there are a million reasons it can't be done.

I can't afford to live close to a town.

It's too hot.

It's too cold.

There's not enough mass transit.

It's not safe.

A serious dialogue about practical steps people could take to reduce consumption is what we need, but that will never happen.