Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Oil Industry And The Times Picayune, Part II

The Times Picayune in its double editorial of June 9th called for President Obama to speed up the work on naming the full commission that will investigate the BP oil spill, speed up the investigation itself and reduce the 6 month moratorium called for by the President.

The TP joins the oil industry and Louisiana's elected officials and some business leaders who do not like the 6 months moratorium. They all think it is too long but are silent on how long they think it should take. They dare not stick their neck out. Here is how the TP put it. But the government can take measures to speed up the review and end the deep water moratorium earlier, at least for some rigs. The editorial writer lacks the courage and knowledge to explain how the review can be shortened.

As for the editorial talking about the loss of rigs and jobs associated with the moratorium it was pointed out in Part I no one seemed to care or talk about the 76% reduction in offshore rigs working between 2000 and 2009 as published by the TP on 1/17/10. Like Mr. Beer, the TP is more interested in the oil and gas industry then the long range welfare of the people, the environment, the coast and the seafood industry. President Obama needs to see that the investigation is done properly before lifting the moratorium despite the pressure he is getting to let it slide.

As for Louisiana elected officials, they will continue to take large sums of money from the special interest groups working with the oil industry and will continue to cater to them despite the disaster in the Gulf. And the TP will continue to hang onto every word BP says in its full page ads they are taking our in the TP.

Hang tough Mr. President.

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