DOI PASSED ON BP’S GULF DRILL

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study
Juliet Eilperin, May 5, 2010 (Washington Post)

"The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

"The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a ‘categorical exclusion’ from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf…"

Looks safe, doesn't it? (click to enlarge)

"Now, environmentalists and some key senators are calling for a reassessment of safety requirements for offshore drilling…Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said it is important to learn the cause of the accident before pursuing a major policy change…

"While the MMS assessed the environmental impact of drilling in the central and western Gulf of Mexico on three occasions in 2007 -- including a specific evaluation of BP's Lease 206 at Deepwater Horizon -- in each case it played down the prospect of a major blowout…In one assessment, the agency estimated that ‘a large oil spill’ from a platform would not exceed a total of 1,500 barrels and…would not reach the coast. In another assessment, it defined the most likely large spill as totaling 4,600 barrels and forecast that it would largely dissipate within 10 days and would be unlikely to make landfall…"

Unlikely to make landfall? (from the Washington Post - click to enlarge)

"Lawmakers on Capitol Hill…[are talking about] curtailing offshore oil exploration rather than making it easier. In addition to traditional foes of offshore drilling such as Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.), Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and centrists such as Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said they are taking a second look at such methods."

[Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.):] "It's time to push the pause button…"