Deepwater drilling safety review may not take six months, panel leader says

[The Straight Story]

Deepwater drilling safety review may not take six months, panel leader says

The co-chairman of the White House commission investigating the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico says he's "amenable" to trying to speed up consideration of safety procedures that could allow deepwater drilling to resume in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of the current six-month moratorium.

Louisiana's elected officials and representatives of the offshore drilling industry have said the ban on new exploratory drilling could cost the region thousands of jobs as rigs are moved to other parts of the world and workers are laid off or forced to leave the area. And without a firm restart schedule, critics of the moratorium say, domestic oil production could be disrupted for years.

Bob Graham, a Democrat, and William Reilly, a Republican, will lead the seven-member commission to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

William Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator whom Obama chose to co-chair the oil spill commission with former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, said in an interview Tuesday that the seven-member panel is likely to issue interim recommendations as it reaches conclusions on the massive spill. That could lead to earlier recommendation on safeguarding deepwater drilling, he said.

Reilly said he's aware of the financial concerns expressed by Louisiana officials regarding the moratorium.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/deepwater_drilling_safety_revi.html

[Art_from_Ark]

1. In other words,

just take the industry's word for it that deepwater drilling is safe, the current 30,000 square mile oil slick notwithstanding.

:banghead: