Obama/Salazer Intervened to allow BP to drill in GOM 19bill LAWSUIT FILED

a new development on information that was

almost lost in the shuffle. Reported May 24th, 2010

Obama/Salazar intervened last year to allow BP to drill at Mississippi Canyon Block 252, better known as blown out Deepwater Horizon Rig.

[link to blogs.alternet.org]

The actual exploratory drilling was approved by the Obama administration on April 6, 2009.

Within days of the 2009 approval, the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies won a court order vacating the Bush Five-Year Offshore Drilling Plan.

Salazar specifically identified BP’s operation as one that should be released from the vacature.

So the system actually worked, and offshore drilling had been shut down around Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, but then…

4/20/10 happened. Now the Center of Biological Diversity sues...

Lawsuit Seeks $19 Billion in Clean Water Act Penalties From BP

[link to www.biologicaldiversity.org]

The Center’s lawsuit also seeks a full and honest accounting from BP of how much oil is gushing into the Gulf each day and what toxic pollutants are mixed in with the oil. In addition to the oil, the spill is also leaking hazardous chemicals including benzene, arsenic and naphthalene.

“Gulf residents, cleanup crews, wildlife officials and the American public have a right to know the magnitude and danger of this spill,” said Suckling. “The company hasn’t been forthright even in the face of public outrage. A judge’s order will change all that.

Until then, we’re flying blind when it comes to protecting human health and the environment.”