A Mystery: When Did Gov’t Exempt Gulf Drilling from Detailed Enviro Reviews?
by Ryan Knutson and Marian Wang, ProPublica - June 1, 2010 1:35 pm EDT
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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 1. 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 2. central and western Gulf an exclusion from a requirement for comprehensive environmental reviews.Yes, you heard that right. Drilling projects in the entire central and western Gulf of Mexico have what the government calls
a “categorical exclusion” from detailed environmental studies. The Gulf, by the way, is where most of the nation’s offshore drilling takes place. (Here’s a handy flow chart 3. from the government showing the approval process.)
http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/the-national-environmental-policy-act-flow-chart.....................
On its website, the MMS says categorical exclusions are established
http://www.mms.gov/eppd/compliance/nepa/policy/ce/index.htm“based on experience 4.,” and only after “hundreds” of studies have been completed without showing significant impacts.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.more:
http://www.propublica.org/ion/blog/item/a-mystery-when-did-govt-exempt-gulf-drilling-from-detailed-enviro-reviewshttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404118.htmlhttp://elips.doi.gov/elips/release/3625.htm
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