Thursday, March 3, 2011

Obama Lifts Deepwater Drilling Ban, Er, Issues Deepwater Drilling Permits

Since the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster last year the environmental nutjob-in-chief and his partner in grime at the Interior Dept have held deepwater drilling hostage. Twice they attempted to ban deepwater drilling and twice it was overturned by the courts. So rather than issue another ban, they did what this administration has done every time it has run into a legal stonewall: they found a way around it. After the last ban was overturned and, if I am not mistaken, was threatened with contempt of court, they just stopped issuing deepwater permits on the basis that oil companies could not show they could respond to another oil disaster.

Now it seems that with the Middle East in turmoil and gas prices skyrocketing at the pumps, the current administration has found a way to overcome their misgivings and concerns about drilling for oil way offshore. I could be wrong about this. Maybe the oil companies were able to convince Obama and his crew of environmental wackos that oil could be drilled offshore in a safe manner. But then again, maybe with $4.00 a gallon gas staring at them in the face and an election less than two years away, Obama’s political survival mode kicked in and thought maybe the ban isn’t such a great idea after all.

In a perfect world this would also mean the opposition to getting the oil out of the ground up in ANWR will be muffled and we can start working our way towards energy independence. I wouldn’t hold your breath though.

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