If only the Obama administration had listened to itself
[Via CEJournal]
The gargantuan gusher in the Gulf never would have happened if MMS had listened to NOAA — and the president himself
An aerial photograph released by the Louisiana governor’s office shows emulsified oil washing ashore at Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area.
With British Petroleum saying it can’t have the gusher in the Gulf permanently stoppered until August, and clear indications that the size of the spill — and the potential environmental harm — is much bigger than BP and the U.S. government have been willing to acknowledge (until just today), scientists and environmentalists alike are expressing increasing anger at President Obama and how his administration is handling the situation.
There’s no question that anger is justified. In fact, I suspect Jane Lubchenco herself (chief of NOAA) is pretty darn angry that Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the federal Minerals Management Service, ignored her agency’s request to hold off on issuing deep water drilling permits until the work of the administration’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force was completed (scheduled for last December).
[More]
So, if the MMS had actually listened to the request from NOAA, this catastrophe might not have happened. Someone needs to get to the bottom of this and can Birnbaum if this is true.
