I Found Something Kind of Interesting in the Decision

…to lift the drilling moratorium.

[Page 3/22]…In the Executive Summary to the Report, the Secretary recommends “a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs.” He also recommends
“an immediate halt to drilling operations on the 33 permitted wells, not including relief wells currently being drilled by BP, that are currently being drilled using floating rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.” 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. They envisioned a more limited kind of moratorium, but a blanket moratorium was added after their final review, they complain, and was never agreed to by them.

A factor that might cause some apprehension about the probity of the process that led to the Report.

“Probity” of the process? Probity as in “adherence to the highest principles and ideals/honesty = probity”?

Maybe somebody stretched and manipulated to suit an agenda? (And from the little I’ve read already, Hizzoner shreds “The Secretary”.)

This is JUICY.

One Response to “I Found Something Kind of Interesting in the Decision”

1. Yojimbo says:

   June 23, 2010 at 1:40 pm

   Language for a blanket moratorium was inserted after the fact. Wouldn’t this be forgery in some iteration or other?

   If a Bush Interior Secretary had knowlingly falsified an official government document to BEGIN exploration in say ANWAR that person would have been fired at the very least.