Senate likely to GUT the EPA this week! Did BP's oil spill never happen? WTF?!?!

by MinistryOfTruth

Unreal! Time to contact your Senators, people! I know it's late in the day, but a few phone calls letting your Senators know that stopping corporate polluters from wrecking America is a GOOD THING doesn't hurt.

    Sources on and off Capitol Hill are expecting the Senate Appropriations Committee to vote on an amendment to undercut Environmental Protection Agency climate change regulations when it marks up the agency’s annual spending bill.

    Such an amendment has a serious chance of passing given widespread backing on the issue from Republicans and moderate Democrats — so much so that environmentalists were asking committee leaders to punt on the markup entirely.

politico.com

Bold text added by the diarist

More below the fold, and a call to action

continued at Daily Kos....

LF 0001: The Put It Back Exactly How It Was Act.

by LaFeminista

The principle of this legislation is to enable playtime  Mining activities to proceed normally; and is taken from my experience in watching my nephews and nieces destroy a perfectly organized living room, and their secondary effect in outlying areas.

1] Photographic and if auntie says its so evidence must be provided of the proposed site, if deemed necessary a three dimensional model will also be supplied.

2] Surrounding water courses how the pond got messed up I'll will also be detailed and water quality analyzed by an independent laboratory. Historic water levels will also be submitted at this time.

3] GPS positions of all major features will be logged before playtime mining activities commence.

4] All major features, trees, rare plants, psychotic kitty and the 2 newfies animals are to be relocated and stored appropriately ensuring that they are well tended don't eat their food  and not subjected to mining activities.

5] During play mining operations no hair pulling the use of breath holding explosive charges must be kept to an absolute minimum. Screaming but Johnny did it does not cut the mustard Accurate event logging must be assured at all times.

continued at Daily Kos...

Bush/Cheney Exec Order 5/01 = Gusher in Gulf

by Gorette

Late last night I read the powerful, incredible New York Times expose on the knowing failure of oil corporations and intentional lack of the right safety equipment that caused the Gusher in the Gulf. I had just written a diary on Bush's Executive Order to give free rein to oil corporations! The link between the two could not be more clear: BP chose to do everything fast and dirty. Had they not ignore safety reports about faulty BOPs and shear rams failures, they could easily have avoided this catastrophe.

BP knew they were operating unsafely. Read the Times article.

The Bush/Cheney administration had empowered them to do so from May 2001. If Republicans are going to blame this disaster and its cleanup on Obama then let the true blame be placed on Bush/Cheney for enabling the oil industry to run roughshod over safety precautions, regulations and oversight.
PLEASE REC the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership!

continued at Daily Kos....

Regulation, Litigation & "Canada's Deepwater Horizon"

by StepLeftStepForward

Hello, Kossacks!

A friend of mine, Susan Dodd, is currently writing a book on the tragic Ocean Ranger offshore drilling accident that killed all 84 of its crew off the coast of Newfoundland in 1982. After reading a letter she wrote in response to a NYT editorial, I encouraged her to address this forum, as I believe Kossacks would find her perspective of the BP's Gulf gusherf*ck interesting and valuable. She has joined DKos but has to wait a week before publishing a diary, and so she asked me to go ahead and post what she has written for her. Hopefully, Susan will be able to take some time out of her busy schedule to respond in the comments section and perhaps continue diarying on DKos in the future.

continued at Daily Kos....