The Inspector General of the Interior Department is investigating claims that the department officials falsified a report:
In response to a request from Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee, the Department of Interior’s acting Inspector General, Mary Kendall, announced she is opening an investigation into whether a Department of Interior report recommending an offshore drilling ban was manipulated to appear as if the ban was endorsed by seven experts from the National Academy of Engineers.
The report endorsed a six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, and explicitly stated “the recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.” The National Academy of Engineers experts responded to the report by noting that their views had been misprepresented and that a drilling ban “will not measurably reduce risk further and it will have a lasting impact on the nation’s economy which may be greater than that of the oil spill.”
I expect she’ll get the Walpin treatment. Perhaps including the accusation that she’s senile.
So what’s the real reason? Coal mining interests? The fact that oil companies are traditionally allied with the Republican party?
Nope, just catering to the enviro-watermelons in their base. They probably figure that most of the people in the Gulf losing their jobs aren’t going to vote for them anyway.
The research-future-energies-now bandwagon has a significant number of people that – for a host of reasons – are now inimical to all of the currently significant energy technologies.
It’s no longer “We’re going to run out! Conserve!” it’s “Oil is evil.” The environmental protection aspect is fundamentally just cover – there’s foreign drilling occurring just over the horizon.
Nope, just catering to the enviro-watermelons in their base.
So what do you think those watermelons want? A cause? An excuse for more taxation and regulation?
Of course Martin. That and to harm their political enemies.
They want what socialists always want — control over the economy and our lives.