May 25, 2010 04:58 PM UTC

The Oily Truth--Spill Baby Spill

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• by: ClubTwitty

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil – and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency, according to an inspector general’s report to be released this week.

Much of the current practices–still plaguing the Mineral Management Service–were put in place by GW Bush and the Republican Congress in 2005.  They were abetted by many Democrats including then-Sens. Salazar and Obama.  

As ‘recommended’ by Big Oil executives and lobbyists meeting behind closed doors with former Halliburton head and then-VP Dick Cheney, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, along with various Instructional Memoranda from the Bureau of Land Management (for onshore activities) and MMS (for offshore) greased the wheels for the oilies.

Expanding the use of ‘Categorical Exclusions,’ which exempts projects from further environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was a key part of this bill and the various agency orders implementing it.  

In 2009, scathing reports from the Government Accountability Office (pdf) and the Department of Interior’s Inspector General documented the many violations and abuses of these provisions in onshore operations in BLM offices across the west, including in Colorado.  Now we are witnessing the tragic consequences of this ‘look the other way’ self-regulation-is-good-for-bidness strategy for offshore activities.

Millionaire Lawyer-Lobbyist Scott McInnis and failed gubernatorial candidate cum Norton ‘campaign director’ Josh Penry sing from the same page on this one–Drill Baby Drill.  

It’s good for Scott’s bottom line, not that he cares to share much of that largess.  But is it good for the nation–to turn over the hen house to the foxes, for government to stand down when Colorado’s land, water, and people are in jeopardy?  Is it good for taxpayers to externalize the costs of this often devastating activity in order to protect the profits of multi-national, foreign-owned, or offshore companies?  Apparently if you are Jane Norton or Scott McInnis it is.

Chicken suits are banned in NV polling places.  Are oiled pelican suits allowed in Colorado?