Oilgate? Obama and BP hiding the 'spill'?

The Washington Post reported last week the the Interior Department exempted BP's "calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year." According to the Post, BP had recently been lobbying the White House Council on Environmental Quality to provide categorical exemptions more often. In an April 9 letter, BP America's senior federal affairs director, Margaret D. Laney, wrote to the council that such exemptions should be used in situations where environmental damage is likely to be "minimal or non-existent."

Additionaly, Reuters noted last week that President "Obama has been the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years", which prompted me to ask the following question:

How much of an effect did BP's lobbying efforts have on President Obama and the subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

But apparently, there's more to this story - much more!

From the Guardian Uk:

The Obama administration waived environmental reviews for 26 new offshore drilling projects even as the BP oil disaster spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, environmental activists said today...

The Centre for Biological Diversity said that even after the disaster, the Obama administration did not tighten its oversight of offshore drilling. An investigation by the respected environmental group revealed that since 20 April, when an explosion the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers, 27 new offshore drilling projects have been approved by the Mineral Management Service (MMS) the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing extraction of oil, gas and other minerals...

And from Oil Price.com:

WMR has been informed by sources in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Florida Department of Environmental Protection that the Obama White House and British Petroleum (BP), which pumped $71,000 into Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign -- more than John McCain or Hillary Clinton, are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP's liability for damage caused by what can be called a "mega-disaster."

Obama and his senior White House staff, as well as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, are working with BP's chief executive officer Tony Hayward on legislation that would raise the cap on liability for damage claims from those affected by the oil disaster from $75 million to $10 billion...

[Snip]

The Obama administration also conspired with BP to fudge the extent of the oil leak, according to our federal and state sources. After the oil rig exploded and sank, the government stated that 42,000 gallons per day was gushing from the seabed chasm. Five days later, the federal government upped the leakage to 210,000 gallons a day.

However, WMR has been informed that submersibles that are monitoring the escaping oil from the Gulf seabed are viewing television pictures of what is a "volcanic-like" eruption of oil. Moreover, when the Army Corps of Engineers first attempted to obtain NASA imagery of the Gulf oil slick -- which is larger than that being reported by the media -- it was turned down. .

There is other satellite imagery being withheld by the Obama administration that shows what lies under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be around the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public, according to our sources...

From Sky Truth.Org - blog:

BP / Gulf Oil Spill How Big Is It?

Quite a lot bigger than the estimate being uncritically quoted throughout the media of 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) per day. That was the last "official" estimate made by NOAA...

At SkyTruth we estimate the spill rate is closer to 1.1 million gallons (26,500 barrels) per day, based on the size of the slick on satellite images and Coast Guard maps, and thickness estimates derived from visual descriptions of the slick. That puts us at a total spill of 21 million gallons so far.

From Apex News Network:

Ian McDonald, a biological oceanographer..., has categorically denied the estimates of NOAA [The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and BP, which stands at 5000 barrels per day. According to his study and analysis, we are looking at a spill of around 25,000 barrels per day, rather than the 5,000 barrels estimated by BP.

Conclusion: We know that Climategate scientists have been "hiding the decline", but now, it seems as if BP, Obama and NOAA are "hiding the Spill"!

"Oilgate"?

H/T - Maryann Tobin