EDITORIAL: Obama to Gulf: Drop dead--Moratorium on drilling adds human misery to injury

The Washington Times ^ | August 3, 2010 | Editorial

[jazusamo]

The Gulf oil spill should not recede from the headlines without further attention to how President Obama continues to punish the victims. His moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is unreasonable and unconscionable.

Mr. Obama says the six-month ban on drilling is needed to buy time to investigate what caused the blowout, strengthen oversight and issue new regulations. This is nonsense. Copious investigation already has shown that a series of specific decisions and errors combined to cause the BP well to explode. Few details remain unanswered. Few if any new regulations are needed; the problem was in the failure to abide by existing regulations. Oversight at the Minerals Management Service (MMS) was extremely lax. It shouldn't take six days, much less six months, to make MMS actually do its job.

Meanwhile, the detrimental effects of the moratorium are serious. "In its first six months, the moratorium could cost the Gulf Coast 8,169 jobs, $2.1 billion in economic activity and $98 million in state and local tax revenue," reported the New Orleans Times-Picayune, relying on a July 19 study by Louisiana State University professor Joseph Mason. "Nationwide, it could cost 12,046 jobs, $2.8 billion in economic activity and $219 million in tax revenue."

The indirect effects could be far worse, especially for the people of Louisiana who are still struggling to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Ike and Gustav in 2008...

[Bon mots]

Obama is working on the golf problem...

[nfldgirl]

Then why doesn’t the head(s) of BP, and especially the governors of LA, TA, MS, AL, et al., tell the “government (Obama)” to take a big fat hike? THAT..I do not understand.

[jazusamo]

I still believe that Judge Feldman who stayed the original moratorium should throw Salazar in jail for contempt of court and order drilling to continue.

[rurgan]

Now they say they can't find any oil to clean up.

So as this was no disaster but a liberal media attempt to destroy the oil industry and capitalism it is even more evil of Obama, democrats and the media to keep this moratorium on drilling going which will cost far more than 8 thousand jobs, more like 150,000 jobs in the Gulf Coast alone:

Judge says 150,000 jobs tied to offshore gulf operations :
http://www.ogj.com/index/blogs/health-safety-environment/blogs/OGJ/health-safety-environment-blog/post987_2976650367555374130.html

[Texas Fossil]

How many Dem votes will the moratorium cost in November?

I feel for those out of work, but in my heart I know this will be devastating on those Dem candidates trying to get re-elected in the Gulf Coast region.

[TigersEye]

0baMao is killing the oil industry.

It Begins… First Oil Rig Relocates From Gulf to Foreign Waters

"As a result of the uncertainties surrounding the offshore drilling moratorium, we are actively seeking international opportunities to keep our rigs fully employed," Dickerson said. "We greatly regret the loss of U.S. jobs that will result from this rig relocation."

Idled Gulf Rigs Head For Africa

It is not just Gulf operations that are being effected either.

Wait and see for Shell {Shell puts Arctic drilling plans on hold, waiting on feds}

Let's not leave the refineries out.

EPA gives final "no" to Texas refinery permits

Then there are the land-based oil leases.

Judge Grills Feds on Pulling Drilling Leases

"A federal judge on Wednesday questioned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's justification for canceling 77 drilling leases sold by the Bush administration around national parks in Utah."

[jazusamo]

0baMao is killing the oil industry.

He and his thugs absolutely are, it's criminal and we can't blame the industry for pulling up stakes and leaving. They can't operate when they don't know what will happen in a year, month or week from now.

[TigersEye]

It certainly can't be an accident or ineptitude that has led him to block the oil industry on so many fronts. Nor was it an accident that he blocked every early effort to prevent the oil from reaching shorelines along the Gulf. That was when the oil could be found and all efforts should have focused on protecting the shores.

Look at any sector of the economy and the same confusion and fears about what's coming next are at work and created by the 0baMao administration. It is not tin foil to look at everything he has done and see a clear pattern of blocking and undermining the economy and investment at every turn.

[ripley]

What a brilliant administration this is, filled with so
many brilliant intellectuals, so many people with so much brain power, so capable of figuring everything out in an instant, who work so well with those nice people in the media.

And we have all those brilliant Independents to thank for this wonderful set of circumstances; all those Independents whose self-esteem is dependent upon pulling the lever for brilliant, intellectual, superior Progressive Democrats.

/sarcasm/

IMHO