“Live by the political sword, get your foolish throat cut, it seems.
SPUD (with apologies to Idaho) = Super- Pathetic Useless Decision.” Rajjpuut
Dem Landrieu, Obama Moratorium Worse
Economically than BP Spill for Gulf Economy
It happened so easily and quickly that the pundits on the left were calling it a “no-brainer. Apparently that’s exactly how President Barack Obama saw the matter also . . . “we placate the extremist environmental factions within our own party and we show PRESIDENTIAL PRUDENCE by not allowing any Gulf Oil activity for six months while inspecting all the other rigs, an easy call.” Like so many progressive-wing “easy-calls,” however, this decision has hard-to-live with real world consequences. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is now holding a Barack Obama appointee hostage while she grabs the spotlight to protest the short-sighted Obama 6-month Oil drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico which she describes as “much worse than the BP spill itself.” It happened this way: Landrieu, a Democrat, has taken the unusual tactic of blocking confirmation of Jack Lew, President Obama’s nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and says she will NOT allow a vote on Lew’s confirmation, until the offshore drilling moratorium is lifted. In a message to Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, Landrieu wrote, “I do not take this step lightly. But the fact is that the Administration's moratorium on new energy exploration is profoundly impacting the economy of the Gulf coast, while doing nothing to improve safety or environmental performance."
Landrieu additionally accuses the administration of insensitivity or lack of understanding of the effect of the moratorium on Gulf Coast families because since the moratorium, both deepwater and shallow-water drilling have "been brought to a standstill," hurting rig workers as well as nearly 3,000 businesses in Louisiana that support the drilling industry. Mentioning a letter-writing campaign the administration has ignored and doing everything within her power "to get the Administration's attention," she told Reid, Louisiana continues to suffer despite her efforts.
Obama and his administration have continually downplayed the prospect of economic pain caused by the moratorium to justify the drilling freeze. In a recent report, it cited an analysis showing no more than 8,000-12,000 jobs are being affected by the drilling ban and none will be permanently lost. According to LSU Professor Joseph Mason, after examining the administration's report, the analysis is flawed and he says 20,000 jobs are being threatened. The moratorium is set to expire on November 30, but Gulf residents and their leaders are frustrated that no serious talk about lifting it earlier has been heard from the administration whose recent offshore policies have drastically affected offshore drilling in recent weeks. According to The Wall Street Journal:
- Only five new-well drilling permits have been issued in the past 20 weeks. In normal times before the Deepwater Horizon accident, 60-65 new permits would have been issued.
- 15 of the Gulf's 46 shallow-water rigs are idle because they don't have permits to drill;
- By the end of October, 70 percent of the shallow-water drillers will be idle;
- Five deepwater rigs have left the Gulf; and
- 30 million barrels of domestic oil production will be lost in 2011.
Live by the political sword, get your foolish throat cut, it seems. The BP Spill may turn out to be utterly small potatoes while Obama’s moratorium is remembered as the Big SPUD. ‘SPUD’ (with apologies to Idaho) = a Super- Pathetic Useless Decision. While the impact upon 20,000 Gulf jobs is definitely not trivial, the energy security of the entire nation is at stake as well as the Gulf economy. This is one of the worst decisions made yet by a president who seems clueless on governing the entire nation and serving 100% of the people as a whole rather than his targeting benefit for his political allies only.
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
