Obama Administration Slowed Response to BP Oil Spill By Keeping Public In the Dark

The Obama administration initially downplayed the seriousness of the Gulf oil spill, “slowing response efforts and keeping the American people in the dark for weeks about the size of the disaster, according to preliminary reports from the presidential commission investigating the accident.”

The government also used red-tape to slow the response to the BP oil spill and thwart foreign offers of assistance.

Then, when the seriousness of the oil spill became impossible to downplay, the Obama administration tried to use it to push its failed energy policies and enormously-costly cap-and-trade global warming legislation (which would result in a massive loss of steel, paper, aluminum, chemical, and cement manufacturing jobs. Recent EPA rules aimed at global warming will wipe out at least 800,000 jobs).

As noted earlier, in his speech about the oil spill, Obama advocated expanding “green jobs” funding, 79 percent of which has gone to foreign firms, replacing American jobs with foreign green jobs.  He also advocated passing the pork-filled House energy bill. It would have expanded ethanol subsidies, which cause famine, starvation, and food riots in poor countries by shrinking the food supply. Ethanol makes gasoline costlier and dirtier, increases ozone pollution, and increases the death toll from smog and air pollution. Ethanol production also results in deforestation, soil erosion, and water pollution. Subsidies for biofuels like ethanol are a big source of corporate welfare: “BP has lobbied for and profited from subsidies for biofuels . . . that cannot break even without government support.”