Update [2010-6-18 12:2:49 by Steven D]: The man has spoken! The Messiah has come!
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Where is Dick Cheney, Energy Commander-in-Chief under president Bush, when we need him?
The president made his fourth visit to the Gulf Coast this week, promising to hold BP accountable for cleaning up the spill and compensating those whose businesses have been harmed.
But of all the people seen and heard regarding the disaster, one person is conspicuously absent and notably quiet.
Has anyone seen Dick Cheney?
Where has the former vice president been these last two months? After all, his No. 1 goal when entering office in 2001 was to fashion a new energy policy for the nation, remember?
So where is the man who, during the first month after being sworn in, was having private White House meetings with oil company executives? Could he be in one of those undisclosed locations? […]
Surely this energy expert can offer suggestions on how to “plug the hole.” After all, he was head of Halliburton, one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world. And that company was doing work on the BP well that exploded and collapsed into the Gulf, creating heartbreaking calamity.
It’s strange we haven’t heard a peep out of him on this one.
O Dick, wherefore art thou? America turns its lonely eyes to you. I mean, you certain felt Obama wasn’t up to the task in fighting terrorists and made a point of saying so publicly, so you must feel the same way about his handling of the Gulf crisis. He’s just a wet behind the ears neophyte, whereas you, you ran one of the largest oil and natural gas service corporations in the world before he ever burst upon the public scene. Surely you must have some tar balls of wisdom to dispense about how we can best clean up this mess we’ve gotten ourselves into?
Why send out your daughter Liz to face the liberal media hordes, when it is you who should be front and center offering your wisdom, advice and inspirational leadership in the service of your country? It;s not like you have anything to hide is it?
The federal agency responsible for regulating U.S. offshore oil drilling repeatedly ignored warnings from government scientists about environmental risks in its push to approve energy exploration activities quickly, according to numerous documents and interviews.M
Minerals Management Service officials, who can receive cash bonuses in the thousands of dollars based in large part on meeting federal deadlines for leasing offshore oil and gas exploration, frequently changed documents and bypassed legal requirements aimed at protecting the marine environment, the documents show.
This has dramatically weakened the scientific checks on offshore drilling that were established under landmark laws such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, say those who have worked with the MMS, which is part of the Interior Department. […]
MMS actions are shaped in part by a 2005 regulation it adopted that assumes oil and gas companies can best evaluate the environmental effects of their operations.
The rule governing which information the MMS should receive and review before signing off on drilling plans states: “The lessee or operator is in the best position to determine the environmental effects of its proposed activity based on whether the operation is routine or non-routine.”
In other words, under your guidance (for you were in charge of charting America’s energy policy were you not?) a regulation was passed that gave Big Oil the right to determine if its operations were risky or environmentally sound. A regulation that essentially put the oil companies in charge of deciding if their proposed drilling operations were routine and thus not in need of oversight by the Federal government and it’s pesky environmental scientists.
And of course, you, as the energy Czar for the Bush administration, must have known something wasn’t right with the MMS when it came to its relationship with oil and gas companies it we ostensibly regulating, right? You couldn’t have been completely in the dark about this sort of behavior, not a man with your experience and expertise in that particular industry:
Government workers in Denver engaged in secret sex and drug abuse with oil company employees and accepted thousand of dollars in gifts while handling billions of dollars worth of energy contracts, federal investigators said today.
Employees at the Minerals Management Service including the former head of the Denver division repeatedly and “without remorse” violated ethics rules over a four-year period, the Interior Department’s Inspector General said. […]
In the Royalty in Kind division of Minerals Management Service, the report said, “between 2002 and 2006, nearly one-third of the staff socialized with, and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies with whom RIK was conducting official business…these employees accepted gifts with prodigious frequency.” […]
In addition to the sex, drugs, and gifts, the employees are accused of rigging contracts, improperly helping oil company workers fix problems with their contracts, and working part-time as private oil consultants g to three reports released today by the Interior Department’s Inspector General.
No, that couldn’t be it. A true patriot such as yourself would never let a few minor missteps from the past keep him silent now, when his country needs him most. Would you?
