Obama lifts moratorium on deepwater oil drilling

[Hannah Bell]

Six months after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, the Obama administration has ended its moratorium on offshore oil drilling. The ban was lifted six weeks in advance of its scheduled end date of November 30.

“We are open for business,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar declared while announcing the lifting of the moratorium on Tuesday. The message was well received on Wall Street where stocks of oil and energy companies began to rise. Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, saw its stock rise 4.7 percent. Diamond Offshore Drilling’s stock rose by 4 percent while Ensco PLC rose by 3.4 percent.

The moratorium on deepwater drilling was put into place in May, following the April 20 blowout that killed 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig and began the worst oil spill in history.

While the moratorium was ostensibly begun to ensure drilling would not resume until the necessary changes had been made to ensure safety within the industry, nothing of the sort has taken place. This, in spite of overwhelming evidence showing the failure of regulatory agencies to prevent the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Among the most recent revelations, the Wall Street Journal has reported that no surprise inspections had been conducted on oil rigs in the Gulf since 2004, in violation of laws requiring such inspections to be carried out.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/gulf-o14.shtml

[Rex]

1. Good! We shouldn't let a few DFHs control offshore drilling regulations!

So sayth Krauss Hammer-Smitt (part time CNN whore/pundit extraordinaries) of The American DeSpectacle. :crazy:

[Catherina]

2. It's a banner week for the White House. Terrible. n/t

[Starry Messenger]

3. k & r