Flea Bites for the Oil Barons

The new environmental regulations for oil exploration in U.S. coastal waters are a step in the right direction. Even critical environmental organizations admit that. The Obama administration has finally begun the process of cleaning up the sleaze that has traditionally existed between the oil industry and the American government.

No other Washington oversight agency has ever been so infiltrated by the industry it’s supposed to regulate. The U.S. media has been reporting on the cronyism for years, but to no avail. That should have been the best indication that oil company employees and oversight officials were literally in bed together: They got in the mood to drill the next well at sex and cocaine parties they attended. That’s confirmed in official investigation reports. And still nothing happened.

It took a mega-catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico before President Obama finally said something about it: There was, he said, a “a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill.” No industry in Washington employs as many lobbyists as does the oil industry. More than 600 opinion-makers bend the ears of 535 congressional representatives every day on behalf of oil industry interests.

One think tank reported that about 60 percent of lobbyists had previously served either as congressional representatives or as high-level government employees. In addition, the oil industry is a major contributor to political campaigns. Obama himself accepted donations from them. And he again needs money for the difficult campaign in the run-up to this November’s midterm elections. On the surface, it may look like there will be more transparency in this administration. But the deeper one drills, the murkier it gets.