I need some help here.. these oil leases..

[Peacetrain]

I have found some threads that say the government has approved 27 new oil leases since the BP spill.. I have tried to find some more information on it.

I have googled.. and all I can find is that new leases are on a 30 day hold..

I am trying to get a little better informed here on these oil lease issues.. and deep water drilling.. Being in the midwest, it is not the first thing I see in the newspapers.

I have gone to whitehouse.gov cnn news, yahoo news..

Maybe I am typing in the wrong word search to get the results I need.

Anyhow, any point in the right direction would be much appreciated..

[berni_mccoy]

1. The post is inaccurate. The Administration has approved 4 inquiries

Go here:

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/Plans_Permits/plans/master.asp

Select the check-box for the date range and for the beginning date, put 4/20.

Then submit.

There were only 4 APPROVED (Plan Final Action Code column, value A), and they were not oil rigs. They were Exploratory Plans (Plan Type Code, value EP), not rigs.

[Peacetrain]

5. I just caught your op in GD.. I left you a note there

I am now emptying my draft folder before I send that email on under my real name.. THANKS

[berni_mccoy]

6. Thanks. You should include the fact about the exemptions...

the claim is that 27 exemptions were approved as well. This is also not true.

3-4 exemptions (CERCAs) were given to exploratory plans and one existing site on 4/21 (before the scope of the disaster was known and before the moratorium).

[Raine1967]

2. I hope this helps:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/07/93761/despite-spill-feds-still-giving.html

Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama’s vow that his administration would launch a “relentless response effort” to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling

“Is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?” asked Peter Galvin, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration’s continued approval of the exemptions. “Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred and nothing appears to have changed.”

MMS officials said the exemptions are continuing to be issued because they do not represent final drilling approval.

To drill, a company has to file a separate application under a process that is now suspended because of Salazar’s order Thursday.

However, officials could not say whether the exemptions would stand once the moratorium is lifted.

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It may appear to be splitting hairs, but these are NOT drilling leases.

[berni_mccoy]

3. I just started an OP on this so everyone could see the facts.

[Raine1967]

4. Thank you for doing the research!

I am still not pleased that 2 of those leases were given to BP but it really helps to clear up the myths that are out there. I will be using this information in other places to debunk this story.

Thanks!