Saturday, June 19, 2010

Why did Obama turn down offers of help?

Friday, 18th June 2010
Melanie Phillips - The Spectator


Amazingly, it looks like Obama deliberately exacerbated the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster to push his ideological agenda. Seems he actually refused offers of help from other countries to fix the bust oil well, refusing to waive the trade union-inspired protectionist legislation which normally prohibits such assistance from being taken -- but which was waived by President Bush over Hurricane Katrina, as had been done by other Presidents in the past. Notes Hans Bader:

In April 2009, the Obama administration granted BP, a big supporter of Obama, a waiver of environmental regulations. But after the oil spill, it blocked Louisiana from protecting its coastline against the oil spill by delaying rather than expediting regulatory approval of essential protective measures. It has also chosen not to use what has been described as “the most effective method” of fighting the spill, a method successfully used in other oil spills. Democratic strategist James Carville called Obama’s handling of the oil spill “lackadaisical” and “unbelievable” in its “stupidity.”

Obama is now using BP’s oil spill to push the global-warming legislation that BP had lobbied for. Obama’s global warming legislation expands 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.”

Sheesh. The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is exceeded only by the disaster in Pennsylvania Avenue...


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