While this isn’t our normal fare here at WUWT, I found it interesting and relevant, since WUWT covered the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling spill story early on here, with several follow ups. This story is a result of that spill. – Anthony
Guest post by WUWT moderator Mike Lorrey
US Department of Interior Inspector General Kendall is now investigating claims by seven members of the National Academy of Engineers that Interior falsified statements by them in order to support the Obama Administrations arguments for a moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill.
As you may recall, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was asked by President Obama for recommendations on new drilling safety recommendations. On May 27th, Obama announced a six month moratorium on offshore drilling based on Salazar’s report, the top recommendation of which was a moratorium on drilling.
The Department of the Interior later said it didn’t intend to imply that the experts had supported the moratorium. Oh dear, that must make it all better. After all, good intentions helped the hockey team get away with their climategate related actions.
Fortunately, the courts aren’t having any of this sort of argument. The engineers complaints are also a central part of the federal lawsuit against the moratorium, which to date, has gone badly for the Obama administration.
A Justice Department attorney, Brian Collins, argued in the case before Judge Martin Feldman that the government was justified in acting because the potential environmental and economic harm that would come from the risk of a second rig disaster would far outweigh the costs of the moratorium. Collins said a better question (versus the 10,000 oil drilling jobs at stake) is the tens of thousands of people whose livelihoods are harmed by the ongoing oil leak.
Feldman frequently interrupted attorneys Montero and Collins with questions about the “probity” of the record on which the Interior Department’s decision was based, the basis of the six-month time frame, and why steps aren’t taken to shut down other industries if there’s a horrible accident.
Indeed. By this sort of logic, the hockey team’s claims of catastrophic global warming justifies shutting down the entire global coal and oil industries no matter what the economic impact.
Now, claims of economic harm from the ongoing oil leak are difficult to assess. Primarily because those most impacted by the spill, for instance, shrimp fishermen and beach/vacation industry employees, are largely being employed by BP on a full time basis to clean up the oil mess, from skimming oil on the water to cleaning up tarballs on beaches. One would be hard pressed to say whether these people are working harder or not than they would have in an otherwise depressed economy, where family budgets for vacations and shrimp food products may be otherwise limited. Given the type of work, one might say they are earning more per hour doing this cleanup work than they would be doing their normal labor.
It is, however, far easier to assess damages when entire industries are shut down with no alternative employment during the interim. While the moratorium has been lifted by court order, the Obama administration continues to enforce it and is fighting it on appeal. Uncertainty due to this fight is creating a de facto moratorium as companies are loathe to risk capital drilling when they don’t know if they may be shut down from day to day in the political tug of war.
Similarly, uncertainty over cap and trade legislation has created similar uncertainty in the wider economy for businesses of all types, making them loathe to spend capital on business expansion, productivity improvements, and hiring, when they do not know from day to day whether they will need that capital to pay for carbon credits or other emissions mitigation efforts.
Now that Senator Reid has taken cap and trade off the schedule for the remainder of the term, we may see that business, in a sigh of relief, will open their purse strings to helping finally to capitalize a true economic recovery, not the fake recovery of earlier this year in the teachers and police union industries, as well as in the temporary census worker industry. They may hold off on this until after the elections deliver a significant loss of control in Congress, particularly if it leads to the removal of Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker with the GOP regaining a majority in the House.
Either way, on the Interior Department investigation, I suspect we will see a whitewash similar to recent climategate related inquiries.
Make a dishonest claim
Base a policy decision on dishonest claim.
The advisors have no drilling expertise. They did make a recommendation which Salaczar falsified.
Last week BP was accused of influence in relaease of the Lockerby Bomber to get a crack at drilling in Libya.
Now we find out Obama was involved in the release. The Whitehouse said they were not aware and Scotland told them and achieved consent. Scotland says BP was not involved at all.
Climate Progress has the story down wrong.
“The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama’s claim last week that all Americans were “surprised, disappointed and angry” to learn of Megrahi’s release.”
This is fake. They were aware of all the details.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/26/did-the-obama-administration-push-for-lockerbie-bombers-release/
Dear Anthony G.–
Please provide factual data which can be cite checked, and which provide scientific authority for your assertions. Data should include current spectrograph analysis results of Gulf water; longitudinal studies of cancer and birth defect risks from ocean water containing tar balls, etc. I do not know the answers to these questions, I am betting you don’t either. This is the type of nonsense that WUWT routinelt vets and exposes as baseless.
Cheers,
Dear Mike,
Two points. Firstly, please remove Fredrick Lightfoot’s post (3:45 am). While it might go down well with the Tea Party crowd, it is clearly racist and has no place here. Secondly, although this might not be WUWT’s “usual fare”, I am not surprised to see WUWT post on this issue now that it has clearly become a mouth piece for pro-oil republicans of the United States.
MJK
[reply] You are right about point one and the post is removed. You are wrong about point two, but as free to express your opinion as anyone else here is. RT-mod
David says:
July 26, 2010 at 6:54 am
I don’t think that any sceptics are apologists for oil companies, that is propaganda flung about by the well funded warmists who think they own climate science. I am certainly not in the fan club as I struggle to pay ever higher gas prices. What I do find extraordinary is the initial response or lack of response from the government and then political ranting with severe overtones of a coverup for the initial inertia, and emboldened by the fact the company was British owned rather than American. Though that certainly helped in the pressure process rather than process of law requiring BP to create a pool of funds, when one would have thought both government and BP would be creating similar funds and resolving recoups in courts of law, almost gaurantees a whiff of extortion, and Taminy Hall politics.
While I don’t generally watch Glenn Beck, I did see one of his programs that assembled a nice jigsaw of possibilities that pointed to countries and companies that stood to directly benefit from the Obama Administrations moratorium on deep water drilling. Hmmn in the light of these exposures, perhaps he was right on the money, and the individual links between financiers do need some more checking and exposure.
Of course if there is something to hide, then they will fight tooth and nail to keep that concealed from the American public, and that in itself is tragic for the people who are directly suffering from the effects of the oil spill.
Needs some good old fashioned light to be shed on the whole process rather than this minefield of endless appeals, legal obstruction and bully boy tactics – can this be hiding the decline of democratic governance?
Forgive me if I err as an outsider, but it looks a little odd!
Anthony G:
Reading your post leaves me in amazement. Seriously, I am amazed that anyone can be so incredibly ill-informed about something that they appear to be stating with complete certainty.
Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Um… no. Unfortunately you appear to be either the victim of junk science gone mad, willful ignorance, or you’re a plant from some whacko enviro group (is there any other kind these days?)
Quite simply, the leak is nothing remotely that catastrophic, as much as the left seem to desperately want it to be. And just because a substance “contains” a chemical that has been “shown” to be a carcinogen does not even REMOTELY indicate that anyone will get cancer from it. You need to learn more about this since you’ve now spoken up.
There are far too many statements about carcinogens going around that are flat-out wrong, and so many people appear eager to believe every one of them. I blame the anti-tobacco activists for completely distorting and misrepresenting the science, which was necessary for them to enact their otherwise unlawful tobacco bans.
I never thought much of Obama before the BP debacle, now I think even less.
All his actions have done is to confirm the USA is not an attractive place in which to do real business.
The ranting and ravings from unscrupulous populist politicians about the oil spill is similar to those supporting AGW theory and punitive taxation.
In 12 months from now, there will be no evidence that the oil spill ever happened. Obama’s epitaph to the American people by his knee jerk, ill considered, actions will be increased dependency on foreign oil and reduced investment in the economy.
There should be a law which states that no one can become a senior politician without having spent at least 15 years in the real world of the private sector. There would then be a much better realisation that doing something stupid has inevitable consequences.
MJK @ur momisugly 8:07 is wrong about part of his first point. He says that something ‘racist’ may go down well with the Tea Party crowd.
This is false. Race-baiting has become the topic du jour, and it’s interesting that it is all coming from the left and the Administration. The Tea Partiers are concerned about debt and about overweening federalism, and not about race.
This needs to be pointed out every time the vicious insinuation is used. I didn’t read F. Lightfoot’s comment, but mjk is racebaiting here.
================
RT-mod
Thanks for taking the racist post down.
MJK
More IG stuff and this administration’s approach to FOIA. Homeland Security investigated and documented people submitting FOIA requests.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/38350993/ns/politics-more_politics
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So what was the root cause of the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling spill? I’m intrigued to know.
Those of you who are wondering if the actions being taken by the administration are intended to destroy our economy or merely “ignorance” should consider that George Soros, the left and Obama’s largest financial backer, (with moveon.org and all their acorn affiliates, etc.) makes his money by destroying economies, short selling and so on.
Also, if the Republicans win in Nov. it may actually improve Obama’s chances in 2012 as he is great at blaming others for any problems and taking credit for anything that goes well. He’ll have the Republicans to blame if they control congress for the likely continuing problems and unless Hillary actually runs and beats him in the Democrat primary (not much improvement there) he may win again in 2012.
Slightly o/t but ‘Risked ‘has an intriguing article about ‘Peak Wood’
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/debates/copenhagen_article/9202
“Energy crisis? We’ve been here before
Around 400 years ago, Britain faced another problem of dwindling energy resources: ‘peak wood’.”
It would seem these type of ‘scare stories’ are nothing new.
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Obama was trying to shut down America…. But he is a Patriot?….. Right?
I mean…. The people he has placed around himself are all on the same page as mainstream Americans?… Right?
….. They’re not radicals or anything? Their past associations, words and deeds are common knowledge to all…. Right?
After all, the American people where kept well informed by an engaged and investigative media….. Right?
….. Oh crap!
I have a friend who quit his taxi-driving job in Fairbanks to drive a boat during the Exxon Valdez cleanup in Alaska. He made $65k in three months & was quite happy about it.
There is considerable evidence our President believes that “truth” is whatever he says it is. Unlike most previous administrations that “bent” the truth to suit their purposes, I can’t remember another that regularly and blatantly made things up out of “whole cloth” the way this one does.
No one is to blame, everything is cyclical and now, the stars above have influenced some sensitive people, having a rather different view that the rest, to act according to its mandates.
What goes up must come down
spinning wheel got to go round
Talking about your troubles it’s a crying sin
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel spin
You got no money, and you, you got no home
Spinning wheel all alone
Talking about your troubles and you, you never learn
Ride a painted pony
let the spinning wheel turn
James Sexton says:
July 26, 2010 at 4:08 am
I’m beginning to think this administration either doesn’t know what makes an economy grow or doesn’t want our economy to grow. I’ll be generous and say they’re horribly ignorant on how economies grow
=======================================================
nah James, there’s too many of them. One person you could blame on ignorance.
This is an entire party, advisers, congress, senate, czars…………
They are doing things exactly the way their college professors have taught them.
son of mulder says: July 26, 2010 at 8:46 am
So what was the root cause of the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling spill?
The Big Bang, it always is, figuring out the chain of event may be tricky, but if you are looking for a root cause, it is the Big Bang.
An investigation will more likely interested in the back-tracking of pre-event events that end up with a person or process that they have already selected. Once they reach that point they stop looking. For example they will not go so far as to ‘blame’ the Earth for creating a high pressure gas bubble, but they will also pass over the engineer that created the device that failed.
Just like in any graph, pick your end-points and it will say whatever you wnat it to say.
PS. I you belief system does not include the Big Bang but instead (or in addition to) requires a super-natural entity (God for example), the the root cause is the will of the super-natural entity.
wws: July 26, 2010 at 5:06 am
That’s why I said this is truly insane – I have never in my life (and I’ve been watching since Nixon) seen a President and a Party just casually throw away entire states leading up to a major election. I’m at a loss to explain what sure looks like a death wish in their policy making.
Nope, it’s perfectly logical. Obama was born into a Marxist family, was raised and mentored by Marxists, sought out the company of Marxists in college, and continued to collect Marxist friends through adulthood. Obama has only 26 more months to turn the US into a Marxist paradise, and until he can accomplish that, *everyone* is expendable, including his staunchest supporters — remember, you’re dealing with someone who gratuitously tossed the woman who *raised* him under the bus to score a cheap race point in a campaign speech.
I like Claude Harvey, We had a Prime Minister like that too – it was right because he believed it was right. Good old boy, Tony Blair.
Some of you mainstream patriot types seem to be starting to get the message. These failures, goof ups and disasters are by design. It is not incompetence. It started years ago. Make your own list and give it some real consideration. Imagine what they have the black budget people doing.
Not just wrong, evil.
wws says: “What astounds me most is that not only is this moratorium economically insane, it’s also politically insane! Remember we’re barely 100 days away from a major election…”
You’re assuming that there will be an election. Never underestimate the inherent evil of Socialism. Remember, too, that the lame duck Congress can enact legislation between November and January that can’t be undone during the remaining two years without a 2/3 majority vote, something unlikely to be attained in November under any condition.
Anthony G says:
July 26, 2010 at 5:56 am
The ocean affected by the oil contains benzene as well as methylene chloride, amongst other harmful chemicals — which are extremely toxic. I recently saw a video of children swimming along the western coast of Florida and there were tar balls all along the beach. The water they were swimming in is nothing less than a cancer bath
What a load of emotional drivel. Millions of people the world over come into contact with various forms of oil products on a daily basis and have done since the invention of the gasoline fueled internal combustion engine. Oil products are used to seal our roads and lubricate much of our machinery and much more.
Mechanics often get covered in oil in it’s various forms and there is no, zero, zilch evidence that they have a higher rate of cancers than any of the rest of the population.
Orkneygal says:
July 26, 2010 at 3:26 am
….The American people have lost their moral compass on these matters. Why do they keep reelecting these people?
_____________________________________________________
It may not be the people who are doing the electing, it could be the Diebold, who do you want to win, voting machines
Also the public is subject to some very sophisticated propaganda. This means we get our choice of corporate selected republicans or corporate selected democrats. We never get a real choice. The Ron Paul campaign is an excellent example of how reasonable third party people are sidelined. Paul was adamant he was in the race till the bitter end, but a week later, two days after the Bilderburg Meeting, he unexpectedly got out of the race with no real explanation. This is based on my own observations during the campaign.
There is also this, that I read afterwards: http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/paul_in_crosshairs119.html
” Andrew30 says:
July 26, 2010 at 10:09 am
The Big Bang, it always is, figuring out the chain of event may be tricky, but if you are looking for a root cause, it is the Big Bang.
An investigation will more likely interested in the back-tracking of pre-event events that end up with a person or process that they have already selected. Once they reach that point they stop looking. For example they will not go so far as to ‘blame’ the Earth for creating a high pressure gas bubble, but they will also pass over the engineer that created the device that failed.”
OK let me rephrase
Was the root cause a known possibility that wasn’t managed according to known best engineering practice? If so what went wrong with best practice? Or was best practice not in the applied rule book? Or was there an unanticipated mechanical failure? Or maintenance failure or what? Or was it known that risks existed that were beyond best practice…and was this was one of them?
Or was the root cause an unknown possibility for which no best practice could reasonably be expected to currently exist?
Until I see some attempt to answer these type of basic engineering questions the politicians should stick to sorting out the residual mess and ensuring the real lessons are learned.
I miss Feynman.