How the Gulf of Mexico was Sold for ONE VOTE

[polichick]

This Washington Post article, Lifting the drilling moratorium: How politics spilled into policy by Michael Leahy and Juliet Eilperin, shows how the White House cuts deals with entrenched interests (from insurance & drug companies to banks to big oil) that are horrible for the country instead of engaging the American people and using our collective strength to move critical progressive policies forward.

I hope some of you will read it. This section about Bill Nelson of Florida (page five) sums up the problem:


"Behind closed doors with his Democratic Senate colleagues, a frustrated Nelson was making no secret of his unhappiness with the administration's deal making. Drilling advocates were getting concessions, while the climate-change bill appeared to be going nowhere. What sort of bargain was that? At a meeting on the bill in March, Nelson challenged Lindsey Graham.

Whose votes are you bringing with you? Nelson demanded.

"Only me," Graham replied.

Nelson pressed him: You're selling the gulf and you're only getting yourself?"


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/12/AR2010101206279.html

[Kdillard]

1. Very interesting article. I am very upset that the moratorium on drilling

was lifted. I do understand that he has an end goal in mind but I am not sure he is going about it the right way.

[polichick]

2. I'm not so sure about his goals anymore. Could anyone really be that clueless...

...about cutting deals?

[ProSense]

3. WaPo pushing another BS media meme

From the OP article:

<...>

The origins of Obama's drilling decision can be traced to the cauldron of the 2008 presidential campaign and the serendipitous way that some issues become magnified in the heat of the political moment.

In mid-June, with gasoline prices soaring past $4 a gallon, Republican nominee John McCain called for overturning the long-standing presidential and congressional bans on opening new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling. More domestic production was crucial, McCain said, to ease the country's reliance on foreign oil.

Obama immediately criticized McCain's shift, pointing out that the senator from Arizona had supported the bans in his earlier campaigns. A few days later, President George W. Bush gave fresh impetus to the issue, announcing that he planned to lift the presidential ban and would ask Congress to do the same for its moratorium.

Over the next few weeks, Obama stayed on the attack. "Believe me, if I thought there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their gas tanks . . . I would consider it," he said in Jacksonville, Fla., on June 20. "But it won't. . . . When I'm president, I intend to keep in place the moratorium here in Florida and around the country."

<...>

But as McCain appeared to be gaining ground on the issue, Obama's campaign aides fretted about the extent of voter anger over $4 gas. On Aug. 4, on a visit to Michigan, Obama softened his position. For the first time, he said he could support some new offshore drilling if it would help gain support for a comprehensive energy plan.

<...>

The seeds of the bargain had begun to germinate.

Bullshit. How is it that the article fails to mention this from 2008: Offshore drilling bill OK'd by House Democrats

The drilling measure passed late Tuesday in a largely party-line vote by the House is unlikely to survive the Senate.

President Bush, who has called for ending the offshore drilling bans, signaled he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk, arguing that it would stifle offshore oil development instead of increasing it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the bill "a new direction in energy policy ... that will end our dependence on foreign oil" by shifting federal subsidies from promoting the oil industry to spurring development of alternative energy sources and energy efficiency.

The House measure would allow drilling in waters 50 miles from shore almost everywhere from New England to Washington state as long as a state agrees to go along with energy development off its coast. Beyond 100 miles, no state approval would be required. The drilling ban would remain in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Two weeks ago: New offshore drilling rules require rigs practice for spills

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department Thursday issued two new rules to improve safety on offshore oil and gas rigs, bringing the Obama administration a step closer to lifting its ban on drilling in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

One rule calls for a workplace safety system to identify hazards and reduce human errors, including a requirement that each rig have an oil spill contingency plan and conduct drills to practice it. Oil and gas companies had strongly objected to such a rule before the BP gusher sent 4.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over the spring and summer.

The other rule prescribes how cement and drilling fluids should be used to maintain the well bore and toughens standards for blowout preventers and other equipment design to shut off the flow of oil and gas in an emergency.

The work place rule will take affect as soon as it is published. The new drilling regulation is effective immediately.

Oil and gas industry groups denounced the new regulations as likely to delay new government permits to drill.

<...>

[Kdillard]

4. Thanks ProSense. I hope the new regulations help and that the President

protects the areas that he opened before the spill.