Obama expected to announce an extension Thurs of a moratorium on some offshore oil drilling leases

BC-US--Gulf Oil Spill-Obama, US
By ERICA WERNER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is expected to announce an extension Thursday of a moratorium on some offshore oil drilling leases enacted in the wake of the devastating Gulf oil spill.

It will be one of various recommendations aimed at ensuring the safety of drilling offshore, particularly in deep ocean waters, that Obama will announce after receiving a safety report he ordered from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

The recommendations are also expected to tighten up safety regulations on granting leases and inspecting rigs. Some details were provided by a Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Thursday's announcement.

Obama will disclose the recommendations and take questions from reporters a day ahead of visiting the Gulf on Friday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37369823

It does piss me off that we will still be doing deep sea drilling but we can't lie to ourselves and say we have renewables in place yet. It is either keep drilling or supplement it with oil from other countries. We get about 30% of our oil from offshore drilling and all the biggest oil finds are in waters that are deeper and deeper, like Perdido which is nearly 9000 feet under water and the Tiber Field which is a 35,000 ft well. We do need a plan for renewables to take over, that is the most important thing.

Salazar is apparently the wrong man to expect that from.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x538347#top

If Obama wants it done, it needs to be done, in WRITING.

As we've already seen, people confuse "moratorium on new leases" with "activity on existing leases" and "paperwork on proposed leases".

and was a little less confused in his own story telling to Congress and the public, that would improve matters.

Verbal moratoriums are tough to pin down. He gets to keep making it up in the press as he goes.

Yesterday, Interior spokespeople revealed why the “moratorium” has changed so often and caused so much confusion: It does not exist in writing. In keeping with the lax environmental oversight he allowed to reign at MMS, Secretary Salazar never communicated his moratorium to the agency in writing.

New York University Government Professor Paul Light told NPR yesterday that a verbal moratorium is “so ridiculous that it defies understanding. It could not be more important to enforce this moratorium and make absolutely clear to the oil industry what is and is not permissible. And yet you have the execution of a critical order that appears to have been basically done through the most casual way possible under federal law.”

Secretary Salazar himself became the victim of his confused, shifting-sands moratorium when he falsely told Congress that it stopped all new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Interior spokespeople told NPR that “the secretary misspoke at the hearing.”


Here's that link again:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x538347#top

The speaker, and the audience. In this case, there are many speakers, audiences, and a lot of fingers being pointed. The lack of clear, written, policy doesn't help.

and if he doesn't like the finger pointing, he's very much created his own problems with the media sleight of hand he's kept playing.

whine baby, whine!

to Salazar just yet, if ever, but it sounds like the stink of MMS under him has finally become too much-- and a head's just rolled. That's at least a very good thing.

Obama is going to make recommendations,which are based on information he is getting from Ken Salazar?

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

President Obama will announce on Thursday a suspension of all applications for offshore oil drilling in the Arctic through the remainder of the year, an Alaska senator said late Wednesday.

The decision essentially extends an informal moratorium that Mr. Obama had set shortly after the BP accident on April 20 that led to the spewing of millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The new restrictions would suspend new offshore drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico and off the North Slope Alaska until the cause of the accident is determined and stricter safety and environmental safeguards are imposed.

One major oil company, Shell Oil, had been hoping to begin a controversial exploratory drilling project this summer in the Arctic Ocean, which the new restrictions would put on hold.

Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska and a staunch supporter of drilling in the Arctic, said he was informed of the new restrictions by the Interior Department. Sen. Begich said he was frustrated because the decision “will cause more delays and higher costs for domestic oil and gas production to meet the nation’s energy needs.”

...

____________________________________________________________________________________

Begich is an ass hole!


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/28drill.html?hp