Vulnerable? No Kidding?

 

Reuters:

(Reuters) - The Obama administration may succeed in pushing through its offshore drilling ban, despite fierce resistance from the oil industry, since a piece of machinery in short supply has left oil companies and the environment glaringly vulnerable to another oil spill.

The offshore skimming devices -- seagoing vessels that suck up spilled crude -- are the first line of defense in the contingency plans that big oil companies are required to submit when they drill in the deep waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

But the vast majority of skimming capacity listed in "worst case scenario" plans to combat major Gulf spills is already deployed to clean up BP's leak, according to copies of the plans made public by Congress and lists of vessels active in the cleanup that were obtained by Reuters.

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I disagree with one aspect of this analysis. The Obama administration will not succeed in pushing through such a ban, because they're incompetent, but mostly because they don't want to upset BP or any other large multinational corp. Show me the motivation on Obama's part to do this for real... it's just not there.

Slogan for 2012: "Obama... he talks a great game!"