Ask CBS News: Why Doesn't La. Want Moratorium?

In our ongoing "Ask CBS News" segment, we've answered your questions about the Gulf oil spill. Viewers can leave questions on "CBS Evening News" Anchor Katie Couric's Twitter page or the CBS News Facebook page.

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Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

Tonight we answered another one of your questions.

A viewer asked: "Why does Louisiana want the moratorium on offshore drilling lifted?"

From Grand Isle, La., CBS News Correspondent Don Teague answered: Well, the folks here believe that offshore drilling and fishing and the environment can all co-exist. They say that wells have been out there for decades operating safely. There's some 35,000 of them out there. And they bring jobs, about 150,000 offshore jobs. They say a moratorium just takes some of those jobs away and brings more suffering to the region.

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[tsigili]

Money, of course. They want the jobs. Humans are totally mercenary. they want what is good for them, no matter how much it might damage someone else.

[SPAfrais_com]

Is it really the people of Louisiana that want to return to drilling or is it just the politicians?

[user000049586849302948602]

Exactly. Actual Louisiana residents are being raped twice -- first by BP and now by their supposed representatives who have all been bought and paid for by the oil industry.

[brianbwb2011]

To luadda22

Check this out, especially the date.

"Thursday, March 29, 2007 (who was prez then?)
Whistleblowers from the Minerals Management Service (MMS) testified today before the House Natural Resources Committee, describing an agency that has steadily abdicated its royalty collection responsibility in favor of big oil companies drilling on federal lands. Their testimony confirmed that fewer audits have been conducted of oil companies drilling on federal and Native American lands, which helps to explain why audit collections have plummeted. On March 23, Committee Chairman Nick Rahall asked House appropriators to restore the number of MMS auditors employed before cuts began in 2000.

(2000, who was prez?)

Today's testimony was delivered by former-MMS Manager Bobby Maxwell, an auditor with 30 years of government experience who recently won a $7.5 million jury ruling against Kerr-McGee. According to Mr. Maxwell:

We were told not to be requesting documents as we formerly had with audits. Audit staff was reduced. Many auditors stopped traveling to companies for audits, stopped interviewing oil company staff, stopped visiting marketing departments and field personnel. Audits were marginalized, and accounting and auditing degrees were no longer required?. Every year we were pressured to do less auditing and state that royalties were accurately reported and paid by the oil companies using the compliance review process. In some cases the compliance reviews were adequate and useful in determining if royalties were correctly reported and paid. In other situations, it was only used as a method of smoke and mirrors to state that royalties were in compliance. I was told that finding and collecting royalty underpayments wasn't important, but meeting our Government Performance Results Act standards was what mattered, our operating budget depended upon it. Further, we were directed that MMS would not issue any subpoenas to oil and gas companies for records.

Also testifying was Kevin Gambrell, another former employee who described a number of incidents where royalties were left on the table:

In 2000, MMS made a decision to close all back-logged audits. To fully and diligently complete the audits, MMS would have to reverse their compliance review course and hire and train additional auditors with oil and gas accounting backgrounds. MMS decided not to change their course and made the deliberate decision to fast track all past audits with inappropriate and illegal valuation methods such as the "bump method" and other questionable practices. I blew the whistle on the actions management was directing me to do that I knew based on past audits would result in 1/8 the collections of underpaid royalties."

So back in 2001, when the BP rig was first being built, there was no real oversight into the construction and drilling.

Who was president then? Certainly not Obama.

So now the president is supposed to wind back time, dive down a mile, and ensure that the drilling practices resulted in the proper safety equipment being installed, right?

Like I said before, when you baggers kept calling him "the messiah", I thought it was just lame sarcasm, and coded n-word, it never occurred to me that you all thought he really was the Messiah, and are now disappointed that he can't perform miracles to reverse the results of your own "de-regulate and privatize everything" mentality.

Such miracles would put the previous Messiah to shame.

[1renegade]

Let's see... Clinton was President until 20 Jan 2001

[dragon8me]

I feel sorry for those who lost work but the oil industry is a dying trade. It's not dead yet but it will. People in the bussiness need to start looking for other work. Most of these guys have noting to offer but a strong back. They make good money and there's very little other jobs for people like this that make good money. Most Americans don't have a lot of education and there are few good jobs for them. This is the problem. Even those with a college education can't always find good paying jobs. Education should be free for all. We also need to pay our workers better and get on the fast track to new industries. Manufactering is also dying because of robotics and companies going to countries that have cheep labor. The world is dependant on a system that requires us to buy more and more stuff that breaks and is thrown away so we have to buy more and more stuff. It can't go on. The only answer is to either reduce the population or change to a system like socialism where the government is the main employer. Any better ideas are welcome.

[brianbwb2011]

There is a better solution.

In short, rebuild America from the ground up.

Replan, upgrade, and build more efficient metropolitan areas and the connecting infrastructure, so that the country no longer needs to try to grow with an obsolete structure, based on a no-longer-existent agrarian society.

It is a mega-project that will take decades, and then don't stop upgrading as newer tech replaces old.

This will provide permanent employment for all who wish to work, for as long as they can work. Other benefits are self-evident.

Since we are printing money anyway, we can abolish the fed, print the currency, without instantly attaching interest (debt) to the currency.

Then institute severe penalties for corruption.

Unless money gets to the hands of the general public, instead of into the pockets of the few, the country will never recover.

[luadda22]

brianbwb2011, you keep wanting the name of the inspector that inspected the BP rig. The last government inspection of the rig was on April 1, 2010 by Eric Neal, a government inspector who had only recently started his drilling inspection training, yet he was sent to the rig by himself to do the inspection. If he only had four months training, he had to have been hired by someone in the Obama administration.

[brianbwb2011]

Aha, now we are getting somewhere.

Checkable info, that's what I'm talking about.

The info to which you refer appears to come from a CBS article entitled "BP Rig Missed 16 inspections before explosion"

In it, the first paragraph reads, "Newly released government inspection reports show BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig was only inspected six times in 2008 even though government regulations say drilling rigs should be inspected every month. In total, the rig missed 16 inspections since January 2005, according to the documents..."

The article goes on to say "Inspectors found five incidents of non-compliance at the rig dating back to 2001."

2001 to 2008, let's see, who was president then?

I do remember when the article came out detailing the bribes and corruption at the MMS, President Obama proposed to separate the inspection department from the royalty collection department, but he was fought tooth and nail by the "baggers", who didn't want to "create yet another government agency".

So now you suckers complain about the result of your own resistance to the president's attempt to clean up the corruption.

I am reminded of a joke made long ago, I cannot recall the person's name, but he likened your kind to "...those who would deny a man a bar of soap, then complain about his body odor."

[brianbwb2011]

"by thy_only-king June 13, 2010 9:13 AM EDT
The Coming Economic Collapse?

Economist argues 2011 tax hikes will cause financial disaster......."

Yeah right, and the world was supposed to end in 2000. Now it is Nibiru in 2012.

What a maroon.

[brianbwb2011]

" by thy_only-king June 13, 2010 9:07 AM EDT
I want answers. NOW !!!"

Even if you were someone who mattered, you still have not answered the questions posed to you.

Need them again?

Ok.

Who are these so-called "Obama regime inspectors", hmm?

Were they appointed by the Obama administration?

When did they inspect, and give their blessing? Is this on public record?

Should be simple questions, but as of yet, no answers.

[NoWayJose9999]

Yeah,yeah. Blame Obama for the Bu$h Administration looking the other way when Corporate America went into its corrupt free for all with the blessing of Pre$ident Bu$h.
You hear this line of insanity from morons who "don't like ni***rs"
That is what *REALLY*is at the heart of their ignorant discontent......

[Renegade.Rivers]

As I have heard said, and has been said many times, "Desperate people do and say desperate things." I don't think anyone in Louisiana or any of the other southern coastal states, or anywhere else for that matter, ever imagined that what has happened since the explosion of Deepwater Discovery would ever become the catastrophe that it has become over the last fifty plus days.

[brianbwb2011]

Sure they imagined it, they were warned about it, the Exxon Valdez showed everyone that it was indeed possible, and also gave a glimpse into the effects of large spills, some of which are still being dealt with.

But those charged with guarding public safety simply ignored the possibility, as they had been paid off by the oil rats.

[gregorio57]

All of you hypocrites who are for the oil drilling moratorium, please stop using petroleum products! That includes any plastic parts that your computer or IPhone contain.

There has never been a spill of this magnitude in the 80 years of drilling off the coast of Louisiana. This oil spill is bad, but the oil will degrade and disperse quickly in the warm, hurricane-prone Gulf. This is not environmental Armageddon. BP is capturing more and more oil each day and I plan on vacationing in Pensacola next month.

[brianbwb2011]

Have a nice trip, don't forget to eat lots of seafood, so you will be sterile and not bring any more baggers into the world.

[rs108]

Typical response from a liberal, They can't argue the point so they have to result to insults.