Mary Landrieu to BP: “You complete me.”

NOAA Director Dr. Jane Lubchenco last week called for plume sampling to pause while researchers coordinate sampling methods, saying that the large signal falloff shows that researchers need to know better what they are doing before they proceed with current sampling.

A perspective of the Department of Interior from an on-the-ground activist.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar would have made a dodge ball player. In his testimony this morning before the House Natural Resources Committee he engaged in all five of the rules of dodgeball, he dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged. Maybe it is his history of being a Senator but the Secretary would not be pushed off message in regards to what is going on at MMS, the Deepwater Horizon leak or the Administrations intention to continue to try to develop the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

The Chairman started the questioning with questions about MMS and its ethical lapses. Secretary Salazar was quick to point out that there had been terminations and referrals for prosecutions as unethical behavior was identified. Unfortunately he used the now infamous term “a few bad apples” to describe the state of the agency. Later on under tough questioning by Rep Kildee the Secretary admitted that there was a culture of corruption that had to be addressed, which kind of disputes the “few bad apples” theory.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

In any case Sec. Salazar made the case for the statutory break up and restructuring of the functions of the Mineral Management Service. This is critical in that the MMS has been in existence by Executive Order since it was formed in 1982, and it collects on average over 13 billion in revenue from oil leases annually.

Unsettling discoveries from my visit to the oil drenched shores of Louisiana. BP and Obama – Who is working for who?

And wouldn’t the Democrats be screaming bloody murder if George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney had personally intervened to make 9/11 possible!

But after Ken Salazar personally intervened in federal court to overturn an injunction against offshore drilling, specifically for the catastrophic well at Mississippi Canyon Block 252…

Democrats just grinned their usual shit-eating grins, and blamed everybody else except Barack Obama.

And that’s the real story.

I neither liveblogged nor recorded today’s NOAA teleconference, so these are my impressions and not a transcript. If a word’s in quotes, though, it was said. Hope you enjoy reading it more than I did listening.

Seriously, Mr Secretary, don’t testify to Congress about what the employees of the MMS agency deserve. Talk about what the American people deserve: an Interior Department that protects our natural resources. Or resign.

The Obama Administration is putting together a presidential commission to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster. It is expected to be similar to past presidential commissions like the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. Will it make recommendations and conclusions about this deadly form of energy that are necessary? Or will it seek to re-brand and legitimize an industry?

Not long ago, President Obama demanded accountability from a Rhode Island school district and pretty much endorsed the firing of the whole staff of a school. Why not apply the same standards at the Department of the Interior?