Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The Obama administration seems to have multiple definitions of “moratorium.” Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon accident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama promised a cessation of new offshore oil drilling while the government tackled the massive oil leak flowing into the ocean.
But records from the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which grants permission for drilling off the coast, show at least seven new permits and five environmental waivers were issued since President Obama promised a moratorium on such activity, according to The New York Times.
Officials in the Department of the Interior, which oversees the MMS, have said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar never intended to stop all new oil and gas production in the gulf. Only drilling for new projects would be halted, they added, and not work at existing sites, even if that meant boring new wells at deepwater locations.
The administration also has had trouble getting on the same page with respect to BP, which was operating the Deepwater Horizon. Salazar promised to “push them out of the way appropriately” if the government finds the company is not adequately contributing to stopping the oil leak. But the head of the U.S. Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, said BP essentially controls the area with the broken well, and that “they are necessarily the modality by which this is going to get solved.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Despite Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead (by Ian Urbina, New York Times)
19 Exploration and Production Drilling Plans Approved by the Minerals Management Service with Categorical Exclusions 4/21/2010-5/20/2010 (Minerals Management Service) (pdf)
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