Trouble Ahead
Unbelievable. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) just issued a Gulf of Mexico shallow water drilling permits to Bandon Oil and Gas. Obama’s announcement that a hold would be put on any new drilling permits was just related to deepwater rigs, not those that operate in shallow water. This is just unbelievable.
Let’s set aside the junk shot and top hat distractions and look at the record of drilling in shallow waters. The two last big underwater oil spills, Ixtoc I and Montara, both in shallow waters, were eventually brought back under controlled by relief wells. Montara, the most recent, took ten weeks to control, and there were five misses before the final relief well hit.
There’s no reason to think that we’re going to have anything but a bunch of oily beaches, dead sea life, and fucked up attempts to stop the leak for the next few weeks. Recent revelations about BP’s hundreds of safety violations have completely undermined confidence in the MMS. I don’t know what the heck the Obama Administration is thinking here, but issuing more permits in this environment is political suicide.
