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“The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn’t have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week….. regulators in two major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, in effect require them. Norway has had acoustic triggers on almost every offshore rig since 1993. The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn’t needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.”

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Evidence is mounting up that the oil spill in the Gulf is the result of a tragic sequence of equipment failures – but ultimately, all of them should have and could have been caught, had the rig been regulated properly. It turns out that tens of thousands of offshore rigs are barely regulated, a result of Dick Cheney’s private energy meetings and interference with the Department of Minerals Management Services, which regulates the off shore drilling. The MMS is also responsible for collecting the billions in royalties from the oil companies and is the same agency that was investigated and found to be doing cocaine and having sex with oil executives. Their judgment regarding the necessity of regulations was clearly not impartial.

A remote shut off valve for off-shore rigs is a regulatory requirement in Norway and Brazil, two major oil producing countries, and several other large oil companies find this valve so important that they use the acoustic switch at the cost of $500,000 a pop even though it is not mandated.

Cheney’s Energy Task Force determined that the shut off valves were a burden on the industry.

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The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has come to be known as the “Dick Cheney energy bill,” but there’s one provision that is so closely identified with the former vice president that it has become known as the “Cheney loophole.” The provision in question, Section 322, exempted hydraulic fracturing, a drilling process commonly known as “fracking,” from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Serious environmental concerns about the process have been raised following numerous cases of groundwater contamination after nearby drilling. The exemption has placed the burden to rein in drillers largely on state regulators that are often unable or simply unwilling to police the thousands of wells that have been drilled in recent years.

Cheney offered permanent regulatory relief and rolled back existing environmental laws to help the oil industry. This particular example also demonstrates the administration’s willingness to distort science to benefit Big Oil and others.

The one exception to the Cheney loophole was a ban on injecting diesel fuel into wells. Yet a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation revealed that the drilling companies violated this single restriction with impunity during the Bush-Cheney years. And oil and gas interests have launched a public relations and lobbying campaign to prevent Congress from closing the Cheney loophole or imposing other regulations. There have been two serious accidents involving onshore natural gas wells in the past week alone. A Pennsylvania well had a blowout and one in West Virginia exploded.

One of the 2005 Energy Policy Act provisions that is most directly related to the BP oil catastrophe is Section 390, which dramatically expanded the circumstances under which new drilling permits could be approved without further environmental reviews or assessments under the National Environmental Policy Act. Many appear to have been approved based almost completely on responses to yes or no questions on pro forma checklists.

The GAO report found that the BLM approved nearly 6,100 permits from 2006 to 2008 using the new exemptions carved out by Cheney and his congressional allies. Field offices in Wyoming approved 2,462 such permits. In fact, the Pinedale, Wyoming BLM office alone granted an extraordinary 1,498 permits using Section 390 exclusions. This is more drilling permits than there were residents of the town in 2000—1412. Ground level ozone levels, largely related to the drilling boom in the area, measured in the tiny central Wyoming town have at times exceeded those of downtown Los Angeles. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar luckily announced onshore drilling reforms in January 2010 designed to end the abuse of Cheney exclusions on public lands.

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From oil lobbyists buying million-dollar homes with DOI officials to a high level administrator being sentenced to prison time, the agency that is tasked with protecting America’s natural resources was wrought with flagrant ethical failures during the Bush administration. Here’s the background on the biggest scandals and the key figures in the DOI under the Bush administration

• 1983-1989: J. Steven Griles lobbying for energy lobbying firm National Environmental Strategies, Inc.
• January 2001: Gale Norton is sworn in as Department of the InteriorSecretary, J. Steven Grilels appointed as Deputy Secretary.
• September 2003: Jack Abramoff offers a job to Griles. Emails reveal Griles was seriously considering leaving DOI at the time.
• February 2004: DOI’s Sue Ellen Wooldridge writes letter to Inspector General in support of Griles without disclosing her romantic relationship with her superior.
• January 2005: Griles joins lobbying firm run by ex-Cheney energy adviser.
• September 2006: Interior Department inspector general Earl Davaney issues scathing report uncovering “widespread ethical failures” and Griles a “train wreck waiting to happen.” Allegations included “financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.”
• February 2007: Griles revealed to have purchased $1m home with former DOI insubordinate Sue Ellen Wooldridge and a ConocoPhillips lobbyist. Months after the purchase, Wooldridge issued an agreement delaying $500m in ConocoPhillips pollution cleanups.
• March 2007: Griles admits to lying about his ties to Jack Abramoff and his girlfriend who acted as the go-between, DOI aide Italia Federici
• June 2007: Griles sentenced to 10 months prison time

“Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior” Earl Davaney, Interior Department Inspector General, 9/14/06

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At the outset, I want to note that all of the conduct chronicled in this report occurred prior to 2007. Of greatest concern to me is the environment in which these inspectors operate - particularly the ease with which they move between industry and government. While not included in our report, we discovered that the individuals involved in the fraternizing and gift exchange - both government and industry - have often known one another since childhood

Their relationships were formed well before they took their jobs with industry or government. MMS relies on the ability to hire employees with industry experience..

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Within 10 days of the Jan. 20, 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush as President, Vice President Dick Cheney was made head of the newly created National Energy Development Taskforce. In May, 2001, Cheney's official energy policy was released. A timeline of Cheney's culpability for energy crimes, was assembled in September, 2003.

Cheney Task Force, January-May, 2001. On Jan. 28, 2001, on national TV, Cheney presented his view of energy policy: don't touch the looting going on. His exact words, "I'm a believer in markets...I think the notion of deregulation is basically sound.”

"Energy NAFTA"/Global Oil Control. On May 16, 2001, Cheney presented his final, 170-page report, "Affordable and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future." The report called for more deregulation across the board, and for international control over priority oil resource regions.

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off


To our President: “Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar. Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.... oh, go fuck yourself, Mr. President” ...Raptor

To Anthony, unquestionably the most civil person on this forum: “Go fuck yourself. On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you. ...Raptor

To Frem: “You miserable piece of shit.” ...Raptor

To Niki: “My guess is it won't just be your ugly face you dislike.....Well, it's true......if you had a soul.” ...Raptor

...Remember, remember, the ugliest member...

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The final safety switch for a blowout preventer that has lost communication with its oil rig is the "deadman" system that's supposed to trigger the blowout preventer to shut the well. It did not activate during the Transocean April 20th rig explosion. Another study West Engineering Services prepared for the Minerals Management System in 2003 found flaw with the deadman system.

"The most serious drawback to this system ...is the mind set of the rig personnel. Many operator and contractor personnel refuse to arm the system from fear that it will either not operate when needed or activate inappropriately, causing downtime. Such downtime can be extremely costly. If the blowout preventer cuts through drilling pipe it can easily cost $10-million to replace that section of pipe and put the rig back into production.

Drilling operations not subject to the administration's six-month deepwater drilling moratorium have until the end of the month to:

-- Provide independent third party verification of the safety and effectiveness of blowout preventers;

-- Install a secondary control system for subsea blowout preventers (current regulations do not require such a backup);

-- And, adhere to new inspection and reporting requirements for blowout preventers.

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At issue are regulations that were implemented during the last decade by the Interior Department and its royalty-overseeing agency, the Minerals Management Service, regarding the use of back-up systems such as blowout prevention devices. BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, has been unable to activate a blowout preventer and stop an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil flowing from three leaks in a crumpled pipe about a mile underwater.

Minerals Management Service did not force rigs to have audio control devices that would allow them to remotely activate a wellhead's blowout preventer in case of a problem. Other major countries that permit offshore drilling require rigs to carry such devices.

Sen. Bill Nelson asked for a review of the development of regulations on blowout preventers and other well controls, as well as the role industry lobbying may have played in shaping the rules. "I ask that you determine in your investigation the extent to which the oil and natural gas industry exercised influence in the agency's rulemaking process," Nelson wrote.

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Alleged regulatory shortfalls are now under investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Committee on Natural Resources, which will focus both on the adequacy of BP's risk assessment as well as regulators' role, or culpability, in the disaster.

Official documents show that pushback from the oil industry resulted in easing of requirements for new technologies to prevent the kind of blowout that led to the Deepwater Horizon rig. Pushback from BP and others against installing a new kind of acoustic blowout preventer succeeded. The Minerals Management Service declined to make them mandatory, as other oil-producing nations have.

Moreover, a safety document from the Minerals Management Service 10 years ago raised the alarm about the potential for catastrophic spills, which could be alleviated by requiring backup and secondary blowout preventers for deepwater drilling. But the MMS didn't require any such system, leaving it to oil companies to decide what was best.

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off


To our President: “Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar. Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.... oh, go fuck yourself, Mr. President” ...Raptor

To Anthony, unquestionably the most civil person on this forum: “Go fuck yourself. On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you. ...Raptor

To Frem: “You miserable piece of shit.” ...Raptor

To Niki: “My guess is it won't just be your ugly face you dislike.....Well, it's true......if you had a soul.” ...Raptor

...Remember, remember, the ugliest member...