http://content.usatoday.com/communit...nd-very-soon/1
The moratorium on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has been lifted because new safety standards will make a disastrous oil spill much less likely, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today. Drillers must meet "the higher bar we have set" in order to get new permits, Salazar said, including written certifications by oil company executives that they have met all the safety rules. Companies must also have specific plans for dealing with any spill. It will take awhile for companies to resume actual drilling, though Salazar said "it will happen soon." Michael Bromwich, director of the agency that oversees offshore drilling, said it would take "at least a couple of weeks" for specific permits to be approved.
President Obama put the moratorium in place while inspectors reviewed the safety of other Gulf Coast rigs in the wake of the massive BP oil spill.
The six-month moratorium was supposed to end on Nov. 30.
Gulf Coast businesses and lawmakers protested the moratorium as unnecessary and harmful to their economy. A federal report said the moratorium probably caused the temporary loss of 8,000 to 12,000 jobs in the Gulf region.
That says it all....suppose to be last year, but now this year...and election year. Can anyone say buy votes???