Obama Responds Forcefully to Oil Execs

There has been much talk about why the Big Oil corporations have run rough-shod over American environmental concerns. We know that Big Oil literally owns many members of Congress. We know that Bush stopped any regulation of the oil industries during his eight years in office.  The only push-back during the Bush years when it was found that oil company lobbyists and the government regulators were having parties together sharing not just influence, but sexual relations as well.

Lately, we have learned that much of the regulation of the Bush era has persisted during the Obama administration.  The same government agents that are supposed to enforce safety violations are also the same people who get rewarded for how much they collect from the oil companies doing the drilling.  There has been incentive to let oil companies do what they want.

For instance, many drilling proposals have totally lacked any real environmental impact assessment.  As with the Deepwater Horizon rig, BP was was simply able to file an environmental impact statement saying that it would be “inconceivable” for any problems to occur.  This was standard operating procedure under Bush, and now Obama.

Apparently, based on Obama’s speech in the Rose Garden, this is going to change.  It is quite healthy for the President of the United States to recognize a problem with corporations in this country and then move to rectify those problems.  Some of Obama’s changes have been instituted immediately.  Again, that is refreshing.  Bush would have had Congressional hearings and then appointed a committee to look into the problems.  He definitely would not have stopped new drilling until the problems had been resolved as Obama has.

Here’s his speech in the Rose Garden: