Hyperbolic headline? I think not. Consider how the Obama administration manipulated scientific findings (remember the promise to be scientific?). This from Politico:
"The White House edit of the original DOI draft executive summary led to the implication that the moratorium recommendation had been peer-reviewed by the experts," the IG report states, without judgment on whether the change was an intentional attempt to mislead the public.
The six-month ban on offshore drilling installed in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill became a major political issue over the summer, as Gulf State lawmakers and industry groups charged the White House with unfairly threatening thousands of jobs. House Republicans have said they plan on investigating the circumstances surrounding the moratorium when they take power next year.
Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and several other Gulf State members of Congress asked the Interior IG to investigate the moratorium and the peer review claim.
"The inspector general's finding that the blanket-drilling moratorium was driven by politics and not by science is bitter news for families who, because of it, lost their jobs, savings, and way of life," Cassidy said Tuesday. "Candidate Obama promised that he would guided by science, not ideology. If that were true, at least 12,000 jobs and 1.8 billion dollars of economic activity would have been saved on the Gulf Coast."
And as bad as that is, the government underestimated job losses from the moratorium. An analysis Dr. Joseph Mason reveals this:
Using the figures from a report, Dr. Mason re-ran his analysis using the government's own economic modeling and reveals the White House underestimated total jobs loss by 7,500 to 11,500 jobs in the Gulf states. In fact, based on the administration's data, Mason finds that that the region stands to lose:
· 19,536 jobs;
· $5 billion in economic output;
· $1.1 billion in earnings; and
· $239 million in state and local tax revenues during the 6-month moratorium.
Clearly, the administration's study represents another failed attempt to justify new anti-energy policies that will threaten the health of the U.S. economy and could undermine our economic recovery. View Dr. Mason's full analysis here.
Not only is this unscientific discrimination against an industry hated by this administration, it seems that this abuse is politically motivated–going after heavily Republican states and then harming the job outlook in states that have actually been showing growth.
This news is an abomination.
And worse, the regulations by the EPA have been foot-draggingly awful. So the moratorium lifted before the election for politically expedient reasons, but for all practical purposes, the EPA is still harassing the industry through the coagulated permitting process.
Solution? Defund the EPA. Two can play at this game. Republicans can just pull the money rug out from the EPA and investigate them non-stop. This is something all jobs-focused Americans should be happy about.
Nearly 20,000 jobs lost in the gulf and it's President Obama's fault.
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