Virginia’s Continued Course within Bush-Era Drilling Program Ripe for Lawsuits
Blue Virginia has a terrific post highlighting the corruption and mismanagement permeating the Federal Mineral Management Service (MMS) during the “Bush oil-soaked presidency”.
“During the Bush presidency, MMS was riddled with episodes of drug use, bribery, sex scandals and the gutting of effective oversight”, writes Elaine in Roanoke. “Amazingly, MMS allows oil producers and drilling contractors to voluntarily abide by a safety management program created by the oil industry trade group, the American Petroleum Institute”.
Remember too, that it was during the “Bush oil-soaked presidency” that Virginia, alone on the Atlantic coast, was enrolled in the 2007-2012 drilling program thanks to lies spun by Rep. Thelma Drake and State Sen. Frank Wagner and the spinelessness of Governors Mark Warner and later Tim Kaine.
Just looking at the map here screams “lawsuit”. The Atlantic has stood protected by a drilling moratorium for almost 30 years. The scientific data necessary to evaluate the impact of offshore drilling is “30 years out of date” as Sec. Salazar often points out. These huge data gaps were also revealed at a December 2008 MMS workshop in Williamsburg, where it was also revealed by a Shell Oil executive indicated that energy companies might “instead build underwater pipelines to refineries in New Jersey, bypassing the Virginia coast altogether.”
Virginia’s Lease Sale 220 is less than 100 miles from the New Jersey shore, yet there’s no study on the impacts of drilling there. Considering how loudly they scream out in opposition to Virginia drilling, look for them to be first in line with the lawsuits blocking Virginia’s sale to the highest bidder.
So what qualified Virginia for enrollment in this Bush-era drilling program? One thing and one thing alone… we supposedly “wanted drilling”. And simply “wanting it”, was all the oil industry needed to hear as they turned to forcing Virginia on the MMS patsies.
But Sec. Salazar is fast righting the ship that was the corrupt MMS. In August 2008, the oil-soaked Bush administration issued an RFI to cover the 2010-2015 time period “two years earlier than the usual cycle”. Then days before leaving office, Bush announced a new 2010-2015 drilling program. First thing Salazar did upon taking office was postpone the deadline for public comment on that 2010-2015 drilling program. Then on March 31, 2010 in the interest of “pursuing a balanced, science-based strategy for exploring and developing oil and gas resources on the Outer Continental Shelf”, President Obama with Sec. Salazar by his side announced a new 2012-2017 drilling program that would supersede the 2010-2015 program.
On Thursday last week, MMS announced indefinite postponement of the comment period required for weighing Virginia Lease Sale 220’s proposed EIS. MMS is doing so in order for information from the ongoing review of Outer Continental Shelf safety issues (i.e., the Deep Horizon Gulf Coast disaster) that the President has directed can be appropriately considered in those meetings.
Stall, stall, stall! Once it was 2011 for the lease sale. Then it’s 2012. With this recent postponement, maybe it’s now 2013. Virginia Lease Sale 220 ain’t happening until an EIS for the rest of Atlantic OCS is conducted and other Atlantic sale areas at least proposed. The Juris Doctor awarded him from the University of Michigan Law School isn’t wasted on Sec. Salazar.
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