Anger overflows on drilling halt report

Gulf State lawmakers are accusing the Obama administration of putting politics above science after a government watchdog said Interior Department officials misled the public by altering a report to suggest that a group of outside scientists supported a blanket ban on deepwater drilling. The administration maintains that the flap is the result of rushed editing and nothing more. However, members of Congress from the Gulf region, already incensed over what they described as a heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all reaction to the BP oil spill, are crying foul. "This was not an accident at all. It was a deliberate attempt to use the prestige of the scientists to support their political decision," said Rep. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of several Republicans who this summer requested an investigation into the moratorium by the Interior Department's inspector general. Mr. Cassidy, who said the IG's conclusions will come as "bitter news" to about 12,000 workers who lost their jobs because of the moratorium, noted that the administration ignored later arguments by five of the panel's seven scientists in favor of targeted inspections over a blanket ban - something he said violated Mr. Obama's vow to let science, and not politics, guide his policies. The IG investigation revealed that an aide to White House energy adviser Carol M. Browner who was making last-minute edits to the Interior report inserted language into the executive summary saying an independent seven-member panel had signed off on the recommendations in the document...more