Five questions for Obama on the oil spill

[Celebration]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052603800.html

I have the same questions.

The news conference will also come on the day before the president travels to the gulf to inspect the scene and also to send a message of engagement. With reporters having their first opportunity to put a full range of questions to Obama about the spill and his administration's handling of it, here are five that should be asked:

1. In explaining and defending your decision in March to open up additional offshore areas to drilling, you argued that improvements in technology have made drilling significantly less risky. Just 18 days before the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, you said: "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills. They are technologically very advanced." What kind of assurances were you given that this was the case and by whom? What do you think of those assumptions now?

2. BP is now in the position of making many of the key decisions on how to deal with it -- a situation that is drawing growing criticism. White House officials note the administration is following a process established under the 1990 Oil Spill Act, which was passed in response to the Exxon Valdez incident; they also concede that the government, effectively, has no choice but to let BP take the lead because it lacks the equipment and expertise to do the job. In at least one instance in which the federal government has attempted to overrule BP, which was over its use of dispersant chemicals that the Environmental Protection Agency says are too toxic, the company has not complied. What do you say to those who say too much control has been ceded to BP? And what kind of changes, if any, should be made in the process for dealing with future oil spills?

3. Salazar has pledged reform of the Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for offshore drilling, which is now recognized as having been too compliant with the wishes of the oil industry. But his proposals -- for instance, splitting the agency into separate leasing, revenue collection and oversight -- have dealt largely with the organizaton of the MMS. If the problem is, as you have said, a cozy culture in the agency, is it enough simply to redraw the organization chart? How can you quickly change a culture that has taken decades to develop?

[FrenchieCat]

1. on that number one......

the answer is in the question:
"It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills.", operative word being generally....which was correct, although we see that it only takes one spill to spoil a whole lot of barrels.

Obama also said this during that same announcement:

It was a compromise governed by the tough choices the country now faces, Obama said, and he urged both sides in an entrenched debate to give a little.

"This is not a decision that I've made lightly," Obama said, with an experimental jetfighter that flies on biofuels serving as a backdrop to the announcement at nearby Andrews Air Force Base.

That drilling moratorium had been lifted by President George W. Bush in 2007, but Salazar put Republican plans to allow offshore drilling on hold pending further review.

As a senator, Salazar initially opposed the Bush offshore- drilling proposal as "a phantom solution" to the country's energy problems, but later he joined a bipartisan group of senators pushing to open up the country's coastlines.

Some industry representatives said the administration's compromise may end up being judged harshly by advocates of more domestic drilling.
http://www.denverpost.com/frontpage/ci_14797310


back in 2008, then Candidate Obama said this in reference to Oil drilling:

"Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven't always supported," Obama said in his announcement. "I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling decisions based on science and fact. But I've always believed that finding consensus will be essential to solving our energy crisis, and today's package represents a good faith effort at a new bipartisan beginning."
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/mar/31/barack-obama/once-wobbly-obama-not-inconsistent-latest-oil-dril/

[tekisui]

2. Having all that, why is the Obama Administration currently approving

new wells for offshore, even ultra-deep, drilling?

Even since the current disaster? Is that part of the "compromise"?

[FrenchieCat]

4. No. That appears to be regulators running amok.......

going by regulations dictating time span of the issuance of permits
from the day it is submitted, while no one was looking as they were
busy dealing with the crisis.

This is a problem and something that shouldn't have happened,
and regulators certainly need to be halted
with this issuance of permits, with that I agree.

[Scuba]

3. I know the answer to Question 5 ...

... Yes, and prosecuted