While Obamacon
entangles himself in a local land use dispute and Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX)
scares the ignorant with rants about "terror babies", Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced yesterday that NEPA exemptions previously granted oil companies seeking to drill in deep water will be temporarily halted. Companies must now prepare a environmental impact statement prior to drilling where the proposed well has the potential for significant impacts. It was revealed during the Mississippi Canyon blowout that British Petroleum received a categorical exemption under the Act based on outdated data for the overall program of increased exploration for oil in the Gulf (Programmatic EIS). No site specific study was competed by BP for Mississippi Canyon Block 252 p
.18 of Council for Environmental Quality Report on MMS NEPA Practices. The company's filed oil spill response plan (OSRP) represented the company was equipped to handle a spill of 300,000 barrels per day. The categorical exclusion relied on by the Minerals Management Service to approve the company's drilling plan was established in 1986. Between 1947 when the first deep water well in the Gulf was drilled at 212 meters and 1986, 330 deep wells had been drilled. The definition of a deep well has changed over time as companies explore further out to sea. The Macondo well was over 1500 meters below the surface. The environmental assessment for deep water drilling on the OCS noted in 2000 that, "Water depths may complicate well control operations. Of particular concern is the ability to stop a blowout once it has begun". Too bad everyone was at the party when those words were written.
Already political pressure is ramping up to end the
temporary moratorium on exploratory drilling on the OCS.
Gulf state politicians are sensitive to the fact that offshore oil employees are not working. Nearly four months after the blowout, the
relief well plugging operation is still not completed. Apparently debris trapped in the damage well is preventing the pumping in of mud and cement from going ahead. Officials are studying the effects of pressure increase caused by a bottom kill operation. A group of scientists studying the government's earlier finding that 75% of the spilled oil has dissipated contradicted that overly optimistic conclusion by saying as much as
79% of the leaked oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico.
