Obama’s Oil Spill Commission Criticizes Offshore Drilling Moratorium
Rob Bluey /
NEW ORLEANS — In an ironic twist of fate, the chairmen appointed by President Obama to study the impact of the Gulf oil spill turned their attention to Obama’s own offshore drilling moratorium as a significant factor causing economic harm.
Commission co-chairman Bob Graham, a former Democratic senator from Florida, bluntly declared Tuesday that there’s a “disconnect between Washington and the Gulf region about the sense of urgency needed.” The Republican co-chairman, former Environmental Protection Agency chief William Reilly, said the moratorium should be shortened.
After a federal court struck down the Interior Department’s first moratorium, Secretary Ken Salazar issued a new ban Monday that lasts until Nov. 30. It was greeted with strong disapproval in Louisiana, where businesses throughout the region have suffered. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) testified Tuesday before the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission against the moratorium.