From the Wednesday morning edition of the Jolt:
Hey, Guess What, The Oil’s Still Leaking
The popular joke around the close of business yesterday was that Tony Hayward and Joe Barton had pretty good days. But midday brought another wrinkle to the mess that won’t go away; a federal judge took a long, hard look at the federal government’s justifications for the deepwater drilling moratorium and blew his nose into it. Michelle Malkin spotlights:
Much to the government’s discomfort and this Court’s uneasiness, the Summary also states that “the recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.” As the plaintiffs, and the experts themselves, pointedly observe, this statement was misleading. The experts charge it was a “misrepresentation.” It was factually incorrect. Although the experts agreed with the safety recommendations contained in the body of the main Report, five of the National Academy experts and three of the other experts have publicly stated that they “do not agree with the six month blanket moratorium” on floating drilling.
I believe that’s legal-ese for “horsepuckey.”
Bruce McQuain, writing at QandO: “Over-reaction is one way those that are risk averse and not used to dealing with a crisis handle situations like this. Throwing common sense out the window, the administration acted like the potential for another Deepwater Horizon was imminent and only shutting everything down would ensure such an occurrence wouldn’t happen. Yet for thousands of square miles, rig after rig has been producing for years without any sort of comparable problem. In fact, Deepwater Horizon is the outlier in deepwater drilling. It was also an emotional and political response, instead of fact-based one of which our cool, calm and deliberative President is supposed to be famous.”
Call me crazy, but can’t we send out safety inspectors to check these rigs and give them the okay as they finish? Must every rig be shut down for the entire six months?
What do you do when you lose in court? Create a new moratorium, apparently.
ADDENDA: 14:56 . . . 14:57 . . . 14:58 . . . 14:59 . . . 15:00. Alright, Mr. Folks. You’re done.