YID With LID: WSJ Report Says Obama Could Have Prevented Gulf Spill Disaster

YID With LID: WSJ Report Says Obama Could Have Prevented Gulf Spill Disaster: "The Obama administration blames former president George W. Bush for everything from dandruff and 'ring around the collar' to General McChrystal's insubordination and the Gulf Oil Spill.

When it come to the Gulf Oil Spill disaster, the usual Obama charge does not stick. Much of the criticism directed toward the president has surrounded his delay in cleaning up the spill (a delay that continues through today). What has not been widely reported is the fact that the Obama administration could have prevented the spill had it heeded a multitude of warnings. Today the WSJ is reporting that last April, over a year before the Deepwater Horizon blew up, the administration received a loud alarm about the dangers of offshore oil drillig.

The alarm was rung by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., which found that the government was unprepared for a major spill at sea, relying on an 'irrational' environmental analysis of the risks of offshore drilling.


The April 2009 ruling stunned both the administration and the oil industry, and threatened to delay or cancel dozens of offshore projects in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.


Despite its pro-environment pledges, the Obama administration urged the court to revisit the decision. Politically, it needed to push ahead with conventional oil production while it expanded support for renewable energy.

Energy was not the only reason, there was also money: