Does anyone believe that last line from our pal Tony? “We will make this right.”
Right as oily beaches, dead zones, ruined economies. No wonder Big Oil has gone into full bore lobbying mode to keep the regulators at bay:
WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration imposed new restrictions last week on offshore drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill, officials carved out an exemption that received little public attention: Companies working in shallow waters, unlike deep-sea operators like BP, could again begin drilling for oil and gas.
Bruce Vincent, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, which represents both deep-sea and shallow-water drillers, said Wednesday that he was concerned about a “domino effect” sweeping through Washington, with new regulations now under discussion threatening to cut oil production, jobs and industry profits.
“It’s amazing to see the impact that one company can have for all sorts of other people,” he said. “When a plane crashes, you don’t just shut down every airline in the fleet until you find out what happened.”
The oil and gas industry is a formidable presence in Washington. It spent more on federal lobbying last year than all but two other industries, with $174.8 million in lobbying expenditures, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.
Love that airplane analogy, don’t you? Bet some smart PR guy wrote that one up for him last night.
My recommendation to all of you? Either pray for the rapture soon or drink heavily. Or hold a Xanax party! Yeah, that’s the ticket.
