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Lawmakers question drilling moratorium
At a June 30 meeting of the House Committee on Natural Resources Republican lawmakers accused Interior Secretary Ken Salazar of ignoring advice by professional engineers and using manipulated content in a peer-reviewed technical report when making a decision to impose a six-month deepwater drilling moratorium in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
The technical report in question was the 30-day safety report that Salazar had submitted to President Obama at the end of May.
Salazar vehemently denied the accusations, saying that imposition of the moratorium had been a policy decision that he had made independently from the recommendations in the safety report.
“I am confident that the imposition of the moratorium was the correct decision,” Salazar said, commenting that it was clear that the oil industry did not have the capability to deal with a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and that, rather than allow things to continue as before or, alternatively, ban drilling for ever, he had decided to “press the pause button” on drilling until the cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster was understood.
Risk vs. economy Engineers who reviewed the safety report said that a drilling moratorium would not noticeably reduce risk and would have a lasting impact on the nation’s economy greater than that of the oil spill, said Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La.
“You would be punishing a large swathe of people who were and are acting responsibly and are providing a product that the nation demands,” Cassidy said.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., citing stories that “political operatives” had edited the safety report after peer review and that “the experts” had “denounced this manipulation,” asked Salazar if he would cooperate with an inspector general investigation of report manipulation.
Salazar said that he had nothing to hide and re-iterated that he had made a moratorium policy decision, separate from the safety report.
—Alan Bailey
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