Outrageous! New offshore drilling permits granted AFTER disaster

The Federal Minerals Management Service is the agency responsible for granting the permits allowing offshore drilling. Permits like what was given to the DeepWater Horizon site, now estimated to be leaking oil at a rate of 70,000 barrels per day.

But under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Minerals Management Service is required to get permits from separate agencies when there is a possibility that drilling might harm endangered species or marine mammals.

One of the agencies that the FMMS must allow to assess potential harm is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, partially responsible for protecting endangered species and marine mammals.

NOAA has stated on repeated occasions that drilling in the gulf affects these animals, but the minerals agency since January 2009 has approved at least three huge lease sales, 103 seismic blasting projects and 346 drilling plans.

Records show that FMMS granted permission for those projects and plans WITHOUT getting the permits required under federal law despite strong warnings from the NOAA about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.

“M.M.S. has given up any pretense of regulating the offshore oil industry,” said Kierán Suckling, director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group in Tucson, which filed notice of intent to sue the agency over its noncompliance with federal law concerning endangered species. “The agency seems to think its mission is to help the oil industry evade environmental laws.”

Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for the Minerals Management Service, said her agency had full consultations with NOAA about endangered species in the gulf. But she declined to respond to additional questions about whether her agency had obtained the relevant permits.

Immediately after the disaster, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stated that he would delay granting any new oil drilling permits.

But the minerals agency has issued at least five final approval permits to new drilling projects in the gulf since last week, public records show.

Public records obtained from Federal Mineral Management Services showing permit approvals.

Is there any oversight at all on this offshore drilling process? How much environmental destruction will it take to change?

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