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Time to put on your “I’m With Stupid” T-shirt and hug a BP gas pump, because ole British Petroleum has done it again. The oil and gas behemoth is returning to the Gulf of Mexico to drill, now that we’ve all forgotten that pesky little Deepwater Horizon thing.

After the EPA last week lifted the suspension on BP drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the company wasted no time in bidding on new offshore contracts (and winning 24 of them). Notes the National Journal:

BP will pay out more than $41 million for the rights to explore for oil and gas along the Outer Continental Shelf. 50 oil and gas companies placed bids to lease central Gulf waters with 1.7 million acres off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama auctioned off during the sale.

Depressing, isn’t it? “Here’s an arbitrarily defined slice of nature, and we’re auctioning it off — to the people who puked all over it last time.” Sure, maybe BP’s learned its lesson … and maybe tomorrow Tina Fey and I will become BFFs and write a TV show together while platonically sharing a cheeseburger. Sounds legit.

See: BP Set to Expand Gulf of Mexico Drilling,

National Journal