As the United States continues to flounder economically, new rules for shallow water drilling from the BP (NYSE:BP) disaster have close to the same consequences as if there was an oil moratorium in place, as it continues to be in deeper Gulf waters by the order of the Obama administration, which is wreaking economic havoc in the Gulf states struggling to recover.
Since June 8, only 5 of the 13 drilling permits applied for have been approved.
The problem is the new regulations in place which will allegedly make it safer to drill in shallow waters, even though government inspectors had cleared every oil rig in the Gulf with the exception of two, as being safe to operate.
According to Jim Noe, Executive Director of the Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition, regulators need to differentiate between the development of shallow water drilling and deepwater drilling.
He said, "BOEM must recognize that it cannot continue to shove a square peg into a round hole by treating all offshore drilling operations the same, disregarding history and geological facts."
Noe is referring to using a tiered review process for the industry based on risks associated with the depths being drilled in.
He added, of the 46 available shallow water rigs, 15 of them have now been idled, in addition to the idled deepwater rigs.
Just the deepwater moratorium alone is causing the loss of over 20,000 jobs, according to most state authorities in the region.
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Any environmentalist still using fossil fuel or fossil fuel related products?What is word for the people saying one thing and doing another?
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