O's guy Salazar lies about drilling ban advice

The Corner - National Review Online on Salazar misrepresentation of experts view on drilling moratorium.

 by Daniel Foster/NRO

The Times-Picayune reports that a panel of seven engineers and geologists consulted by the Obama administration after the BP Gulf spill are angry at Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for inaccurately using them as props in support of the administration's six-month deep-water drilling moratorium.

The group was brought in to review safety recommendations and other technical aspects of a report produced by Salazar on how the administration should respond to the spill. It was not asked to sign off on President Obama's blanket six-month halt on all drilling at oceanic depths below 500 feet. In fact, the panel's members oppose such a moratorium as unnecessary.

But:

Salazar's May 27 report to President Barack Obama said a panel of seven experts "peer reviewed" his recommendations, which included a six-month moratorium on all ongoing drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet. That prohibition took effect a few days later, but the angry panel members and some others who contributed to the Salazar report said they had only reviewed an earlier version of the Interior secretary's report that suggested a six-month moratorium only on new drilling, and then only in waters deeper than 1,000 feet.


"We broadly agree with the detailed recommendations in the report and compliment the Department of Interior for its efforts," a joint letter from the panelists to various politicians says. "However, we do not agree with the six-month blanket moratorium on floating drilling. A moratorium was added after the final review and was never agreed to by the contributors."


An Interior Department spokeswoman agreed that the experts had not given their blessing for a moratorium, and said the department did not mean to leave the impression they had. In fact, she said, the experts were merely asked to review 22 safety recommendations in the report.


"We didn't mean to imply that they also agreed with the moratorium on deepwater drilling," the spokeswoman, Kendra Barkoff, said. "We acknowledge that they were not asked to review or comment on the proposed moratorium and that they peer-reviewed the report on a technical basis. The moratorium on deepwater drilling is based on the need for a comprehensive review of safety in deepwater operations in light of the BP oil spill."

Full story here.

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