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Trump Erased an Obama Policy that Protected the Oceans from Oil Industry
There was a time not very long ago when Executive Orders were issue by President Obama to improve our society. They protected our people and our environment from harm. They were frequently necessitated by the porudly obstructionist Republican Congress who said no to everything.
President Barack Obama mentioned the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest and costliest oil spill in the nation’s history, in the second sentence of an executive order that detailed the first national ocean policy and called on federal agencies to work closely with states and local governments to manage the waters off their coasts.
“The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and resulting environmental crisis is a stark reminder of how vulnerable our marine environments are, and how much communities and the nation rely on healthy and resilient ocean and coastal ecosystems,” Obama’s July 2010 order said.
Trump's enablers, including low lifes such as Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke, are paid off by oil industry executives. They don't even hide it -- it's public record in their lists of meetings since taking office, let alone their decades of working hand-in-hand with them to earn their prized current roles.
Trump on Wednesday (June 20, 2018) ended an eight-year-old policy to protect oceans, which was created as hundreds of millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from a broken well, covering more than 65,000 square miles, killing untold numbers of wildlife and devastating fisheries in several Gulf Coast states.
In contrast, Trump’s order does not mention the explosion that killed nearly a dozen workers and the spill of 210 million gallons of oil.
Oh yeah, that time we killed 11 people and spilled oil just off our coast. For a minute there it seemed like a good idea to order various agencies to work together to improve safety, even if it meant oil companies had to spend a few dollars. But those righteous Republicans are back at it saving companies from having to give a damn about our people or our environment.
BP was held responsible for the blowout of a well a mile underwater that set fire to the Deepwater Horizon rig and sank it. The well leaked for more than four months and poured 3 million barrels of crude into the gulf. The British company was fined almost $62 billion, more than the value of Ford, Honda and General Motors combined.
Safety measures on offshore drilling for oil and gas are being eliminated and funding halted for studies on safety. One again, Trump and the GOP are working for corporate interest and against the American people and our environment.