Politics and the lifting of the offshore drilling moratorium
The Obama administration lifted the moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling on Tuesday, a month and a half before its originally scheduled Nov. 30 expiration date.
In announcing the move -- which comes as oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster that led to the ban continues to wash up along the Gulf Coast -- the Interior Department said new rules and improved blowout containment resources detailed in a report [pdf] released earlier this month by the the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, (BOEM, formerly the Minerals Management Service) make drilling much safer.
"We have more work to do in our reform agenda, but at this point we believe the strengthened safety measures we have implemented, along with improved spill response and blowout containment capabilities, have reduced risks to a point where operators who play by the rules and clear the higher bar can be allowed to resume," said Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar.
But environmentalists blasted the administration for lifting the ban so soon.
"This is pure politics of the most cynical kind," said Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace. "It is all about the election season, not safety and environmental concerns. The White House wants us to believe that they have solved all the dangers of offshore drilling and we can return to business as usual. It is a false promise, if not a big lie."
Also condemning the decision was Dan Favre of the Gulf Restoration Network, who told the New York Times that "renaming a federal agency and creating a blueprint for safer drilling are not enough to ensure that the industry will actually follow the rules."
While oil and gas industry officials said they welcomed the lifting of the ban, they expressed concern that the new rules could slow permitting and impede production.
"Without additional resources and a serious commitment by the government to process and approve permits and other requirements expeditiously, the moratorium will give way to a de facto moratorium," said American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) -- one of the oil industry's staunchest congressional allies and one of the moratorium's most outspoken critics -- said she still has no plans to lift her protest hold on President Obama's nominee for White House Budget director any time soon.
"I am not going to release my hold on Jack Lew," she announced. "Instead, I will take this time to look closely at how BOEM is handling the issuing of permits and whether or not drilling activity in both shallow and deep water is resuming."
Landrieu also used the occasion to repeat the disproved claims that the moratorium was killing jobs in the region, saying that when Congress reconvenes for the lame duck session next month she'll have had time to evaluate whether the moratorium "is actually putting people back to work."
In fact, overall employment data in Louisiana's coastal parishes has showed little change since the ban was imposed.
In announcing the move -- which comes as oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster that led to the ban continues to wash up along the Gulf Coast -- the Interior Department said new rules and improved blowout containment resources detailed in a report [pdf] released earlier this month by the the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, (BOEM, formerly the Minerals Management Service) make drilling much safer.
"We have more work to do in our reform agenda, but at this point we believe the strengthened safety measures we have implemented, along with improved spill response and blowout containment capabilities, have reduced risks to a point where operators who play by the rules and clear the higher bar can be allowed to resume," said Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar.
But environmentalists blasted the administration for lifting the ban so soon.
"This is pure politics of the most cynical kind," said Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace. "It is all about the election season, not safety and environmental concerns. The White House wants us to believe that they have solved all the dangers of offshore drilling and we can return to business as usual. It is a false promise, if not a big lie."
Also condemning the decision was Dan Favre of the Gulf Restoration Network, who told the New York Times that "renaming a federal agency and creating a blueprint for safer drilling are not enough to ensure that the industry will actually follow the rules."
While oil and gas industry officials said they welcomed the lifting of the ban, they expressed concern that the new rules could slow permitting and impede production.
"Without additional resources and a serious commitment by the government to process and approve permits and other requirements expeditiously, the moratorium will give way to a de facto moratorium," said American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) -- one of the oil industry's staunchest congressional allies and one of the moratorium's most outspoken critics -- said she still has no plans to lift her protest hold on President Obama's nominee for White House Budget director any time soon.
"I am not going to release my hold on Jack Lew," she announced. "Instead, I will take this time to look closely at how BOEM is handling the issuing of permits and whether or not drilling activity in both shallow and deep water is resuming."
Landrieu also used the occasion to repeat the disproved claims that the moratorium was killing jobs in the region, saying that when Congress reconvenes for the lame duck session next month she'll have had time to evaluate whether the moratorium "is actually putting people back to work."
In fact, overall employment data in Louisiana's coastal parishes has showed little change since the ban was imposed.
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.