| When you run against the government, you won't govern when you win. We saw this with the Bush packing of various federal agencies designed to prevent financial meltdowns, recover from hurricanes, assure worker safety, and protect the environment, including endangered species.
The New York Times had a headline over Leslie Kaufman's Agency Agreed Wildlife Risk From Oil Was 'Low' which notes that the Fish and Wildlife Service signed off on the Minerals Management Service's conclusion that deepwater drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico posed no significant risk to wildlife, despite evidence that a spill of even moderate size could be disastrous, according to federal documents.
By law, the minerals service, before selling oil leases in the gulf, must submit an evaluation of the potential biological impact on threatened species to the Fish and Wildlife Service, whose responsibilities include protecting endangered species on land. Although the wildlife agency cannot block lease sales, it can ask for changes in the assessment if it believes it is inadequate, or it can insist on conducting its own survey of potential threats, something the agency has frequently done in the past. ...the wildlife agency agreed with the minerals service's characterization that the chances that deepwater drilling would result in a spill that would pollute critical habitat was "low."
Why did this happen? Is it the "fault" of the Obama Administration or the 8 years of anti-regulation in all areas we have seen by the Republican officeholders and their appointed hatchets?
Eight years ago, some of us noted that the Bush Administration was not "governing" but using the massive US government much as "Chainsaw Al" did as he took over once-solid US corporations and dismantled their core competencies for short term gain. In short, a Takeover. Yes, there is a total failure of regulatory behavior in many industries which can be laid at the feet of our government's regulatory agencies whose direction was set by the Bush Republicans. The failure lays with the systemic redirection of those agencies by the salting of lower level administrators and appointees throughout the government.
As an example, of this, consider the untrained flack at NASA who forbade publishing of climate change papers without "review" in scholarly journals? Who remembers the packing of US Attorneys at the behest of Carl Rove or the earlier silencing of civil rights lawyers in the US Attorney General's office prior to the 2002 elections? The present day Republicans have demonstrated that they are not interested in governing, only holding power for the sake of their financial masters, and many would call this corruption.
Now carry this to the Fish & Wildlife Service's approval of the deep water drilling plans:
In its 71-page biological assessment, the Minerals Management Service concluded that the chances of oil from a spill larger than 1,000 barrels reaching critical habitat within 10 days could be more than 1 in 4 for the piping plover and the bald eagle, as high as 1 in 6 for the brown pelican and almost 1 in 10 for the Kemp's ridley sea turtle. When the model was extended to 30 days, the assessment predicted even higher likelihoods of habitat pollution. and "We all know an oil spill is catastrophic, but what is the likelihood it will happen?" Deborah Fuller[the endangered species program coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service's office in Lafayette, La.] ... asked. She said her office had considered that any likelihood under 50 percent would not be enough to require the protections of her office.
This kind of thing has to be stopped. The laws are in place. But, the Republican party of the 21st Century is interested only in furthering its power and its "leaders" wealth through bribing jobs in their "regulated" industries and using their U.S. Senate filibustering veto when new administrator are nominated or reform is proposed. We may not be happy with our current crop of Democratic candidates or office holders, but we have to keep the Republican party of destruction from further harming our country.
If you think for a moment that this is a "national" matter, read the Colorado Republican candidates' positions on regulation in Colorado and know that our state can be as seriously devastated as the Gulf by their corrupt behavior. Keep them out. Convince voters, one at a time, if need be. But, get our voters to vote and save our country and our state. |
