*Video: best and worst case scenarios from homeland security secretary janet napolitano in biloxi, miss., last week.

In this video, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano discusses worst and best case scenarios while in Biloxi, Miss., last week. McClatchy media has uncovered an astounding bit of information, given the devastation that is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.   There should, right now, be a moratorium on new drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico, or at least that is what we have been led to believe.   It’s not the truth, though. Exemptions for new drilling are being granted dirty oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, even while the current disaster is still unfolding.*

WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama’s vow that his administration would launch a “relentless response effort” to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling

The exemptions, known as “categorical exclusions,” were granted by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a BP exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration plan at more 9,000 feet.

“Is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?” asked Peter Galvin, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration’s continued approval of the exemptions. “Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred and nothing appears to have changed.”

MMS officials said the exemptions are continuing to be issued because they do not represent final drilling approval.”

Or, we are not being told the truth about what the U.S. government is really doing or intending to do about offshore drilling.  Now that we know President Obama doesn’t appear to be serious about fighting climate change, he was probably never serious about a “clean green economy” either.  Oil and gas and coal run the U.S. economy, they control our Congress, and it appears that they also control all facets of our government. We are a corporation controlled economy, and this is led by big fossil fuel companies and giant banks. It’s time for some real reform in the U.S.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/07/93761/despite-spill-feds-still-giving.html#none#ixzz0nhnSvVUY

Could our government’s plan be to completely trash the Atlantic Ocean? That’s what it looks like. We now know without a doubt that big corporations like Transocean, Halliburton, and BP don’t care anything about our environment. Their product is dirty and polluting, from the moment it’s pumped out [...]