Fudging the facts on oil

Apparently there is nothing the Obama administration won’t do or say to justify the way it does business - including lying. Case in point, an administration report used to justify its six-month ban on new deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the BP oil disaster. Now the Interior Department’s inspector general has confirmed that the White House did indeed alter a report that was supposedly the work of scientists and experts in the field to make it appear they supported the ban. With some deft editing, the White House made it appear the drilling moratorium recommendation was “peer reviewed” when, in fact, the only thing peer-reviewed were new safety measures for offshore drilling. “We believe the report does not justify the moratorium as written and that the moratorium as changed will not contribute measurably to increased safety and will have immediate and long-term economic effects,” the scientists wrote in a letter to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state’s senators earlier this year...more

This Boston Herald editorial concluded by saying:

Still a congressional inquiry into the matter - and White House involvement - when the new House takes its seats next year would not be out of order.