Why did the Obama administration block efforts to stop BP oil drilling before the explosion?

He obviously got bad advice. He's got to be regretting it now, though.

It's no surprise that our elected "representatives" no longer represent us. Thanks to a handful of right wing Supreme Court decisions, our government has been bought and sold by the ultra-wealthy international banksters and corporations. Every time someone has attempted to fix it via campaign reform, it slams up against the First Amendment and the Supremes ruling that money is speech. The Dred-Scott decision said people were property. The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission said that property is people.

To fix this, we need an amendment to the Constitution that defines a person as a breathing human being, not a corporation, bank or union.

http://www.movetoamend.org/

I would like to see us do what Germany is doing about energy. In Germany about every 3rd house is covered with solar panels. The Germans passed a law that the bank has to offer a mortgage, a ten year mortgage, on installation of solar power -- guaranteed by the government. If you put solar panels on your house, the power company has to buy the electricity back at 8 times market rate (about what it would cost if the power company was going to build a new nuclear reactor or a new coal-fired reactor).

More on that here:

http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2006/06/transcrip...

In addition, I hear that most front and back yards in Germany have been turned into vegetable gardens. When you grow it yourself, there is no fuel needed to ship it anywhere. Just eat it and share with your neighbors.

Oil is finite and we will run out. Solar panels and electric cars will save us millions of barrels of oil. Ever hear of a solar panel spill destroying an ecosystem? Thought not.

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Three things come to mind. One is that Obama is not the liberal that he represented himself to be. I dismiss this but will keep an open mind. The other is that in his inexperience he came to fear making too many changes too fast until he could get his head wrapped around it so he decidd to stay the course.I accept this because I see it in other decisions such as keeping the patriot act in place. Third, offshore drilling very nearly cost him the Presidency. High oil prices combined with him appearing to be against offshore drilling could cost him reelection.

I think a combination of the last 2 are what caused this insanity. Offshore oil drilling is too dangerous. Nothing that we could do with that oil is worth the loss of the fertile source of beauty and food that the Oceans represent.

For those that would give me a thumbs down for my hypocrisy. Consider that I live on a 50 foot sailing yacht that has solar panels to run my electronics and the computer that I am using right now. I sail on the clear free wind and the Oceans are my front yard. I do use diesel at a rate of about 50 gallons a year in situations where it would be dangerous not to. I do search for affordable alternatives.

The way the law is written, the oil company that starts a leak is in charge to fix it. No one, including Obama, says out and out how large a volume of oil reserves are down there that might get out. So, even if the entire Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic ocean are covered with oil we still are to sit on our hands and let BP call the shots. This law makes it possible for investors control the value of trillions of dollars in real estate while paying out only 5 billion a year in damages. All our Federal USA politicians are following the same script, sitting and watching what BP does and making comments to the media about it. If they don't get in there to stop it, its going to be the end of the USA. They need to assemble a plan B team of engineers, geologists, and other scientists to plan a next step if BP cannot get this thing closed down by the end of August. It needs be ready to go then, not, lets start talking about what to do next.

"Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has long had close ties to the industry . . ."

There you go. Someone would have made money off of the drilling. Offshore drilling is too damn dangerous. America needs to wake up and find another source, but of course we can't let those "benign" oil companies go out of business now can we?

Not blocking BP oil from drilling before the explosion, must have been profitable for Obama... Hmm.. It appears that Obama can be manipulated by the petroleum industry, too.

It’s my guess it’s because he (Obama) wanted to look a little more “moderate” to the far right. You know, all of their “Drill Baby Drill” crap, he was throwing them a bone.

You’ll notice however, that the Obama Administration has halted all new exploration in the Golf until the cause and affect of BP’s spill has been rectified and ‘this sort of thing’ cannot repeat itself.

I believe the answer lies (as it always does with politicians) in the money trail, BP is a very large contributor to both parties in Washington, they gave large amounts to the Obama campaign. They have major lobbyists working congress, and the executive branch 24/7. That may be a simple answer, but in this society money is power.

Conservatives better be celebrating Obama being a good capitalist

Another well documented , great and logical post, which leaves (for me at least) only one answer: >> I agree.

Regards.