Posted on 08/20/2010 6:29:51 PM PDT by Brilliant
Senior Obama administration officials concluded the federal moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling would cost roughly 23,000 jobs and freeze up to $10.2 billion in oil-industry investment, according to previously undisclosed documents detailing their internal debates.
Marcia McNutt, an Obama administration science adviser, commented on the corporate culture of BP in a memo sent to Michael Bromwich, the administration's new top offshore oil exploration regulator, on June 28.
Critics of the moratorium, including Gulf Coast political figures and oil-industry leaders, have said it is crippling the region's economy, and some have called on the administration to make public its economic analysis. A federal judge who in June threw out an earlier six-month moratorium faulted the administration for playing down the economic effects.
After his action, the documents show, administration officials considered alternatives but chose to impose a new drilling moratorium after concluding the industry lacked viable strategies for containing another major spill. Officials also expressed doubts internally about the reliability of the equipment the industry uses to prevent blowouts.
The administration hadn't previously disclosed its estimates of the economic effect of the controversial halt, ordered after the April explosion at a Gulf of Mexico well. The documents doing so were filed in a New Orleans federal court by the Justice Department earlier this week as part of the latest round of litigation over the moratorium.
Spanning more than 27,000 pages, they provide an unusually detailed look at deliberations about how to respond to the legal and political opposition to the moratorium...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It’s BP’s fault. Make THEM pay for it.
Very interesting, article. Thanks for posting.
Willie, the drilling moratorium is the administration's fault.
It's totally unneccessary and will cost 27,000 jobs, besides putting a substantial dent in our crude oil supply.
Make the administration pay. In November. Dearly.
Going a few steps farther; personally, think the bad safety record was their 'smoke and mirrors' MO so when a flaming mouse was thrown onto rig; no one would imagine. . .(yes.OK. Got radical MO from book/Dr. Mary's Monkey'(non-fiction); but concept is Marxist universal(and Alynsky)/ and with a little - or too much - imagination; there is a leap/lol - or not.
(At least; it is somewhere in the 'realm of possibility'. But no need to go there; we have only to stick with information such as that shared in WSJ to get to relevant conclusions about motivations here.)
I’ve seen news articles that said the moratorium would cost 150,000 jobs. In order for Obama to accomplish his dream to redistribute our wealth, he must first destroy the Capitalistic system. It appears to me he is doing a great job.
Willie, the drilling moratorium is the administration's fault
BP gave them the excuse.
It's all BP's fault.
Make BP pay for it.
The 0bama-Democrat-RINO (Progressive) "No Domestic Energy Policy!"
"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."
That is absolutely absurd moral relativism.
I think we can now see why Obama was publicly for nukes and oil drilling back in the spring (and pissed off a lot of lefties). It was cover so he could shut those industries down later while claiming he was actually FOR both.
Have you noticed it’s the Gulf region, where the recession has not hit the area as hard. New Orleans’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average. Ironically, New Orleans’s unemployment rate is normally above average.
Because BP had nothing to do with the drilling moratorium. Your moral relativism, which excuses 0bama for his actions, is repugnant.
MSM where are you? NYSlimes? WAComPost? NPR? Why the silence?
Your simplistic comments make me realize two things. You are not from that area, I am. And you are simply chanting pablum for the masses not unlike OBama does. Blame big business, blame Bush, blame anyone but he.
Yes, that’s probably because of the BP stimulus. But now it is coming to an end, so expect that region to be among the slowest growth areas in the future.
Cloward-Pliven
Because BP had nothing to do with the drilling moratorium.Yes they did.
This decision makes us more dependent on foreign oil. That’s it, he’s a muslim.
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