They’re mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore…
The Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA), put together the following video to explain how the de facto moratorium against offshore drilling is killing the American economy and driving up oil and gas prices. OMSA represents the companies that provide supplies and services to the oil rigs in the Gulf. They are really hurting, as they watch drill equipment leave the Gulf instead of waiting out the drilling moratorium.
Here is OMSA’s Open Letter to Barack Obama:
February 17, 2011
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the tens of thousands of offshore marine service employees and their families, we are writing to protest your war on domestic energy exploration and development and its devastating impact on Americans. Lift your de facto moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Let Americans get back to work. We’ve suffered enough.
Your response to the Gulf oil spill has been unreasonable, unwarranted, unfair, and unlawful. Other industries have collaborated with government to tighten safety measures and implement improvements following tragic accidents, but you simply shut down every deepwater drilling operator in the Gulf of Mexico. When a federal judge pronounced your moratorium was unjustified-and later found you in contempt of the injunction-you simply ignored the court’s ruling as if you were above the law.
For nearly a year, you have defied a court order prohibiting you from interfering in the lawful production of energy off the Gulf Coast. You are not issuing deepwater drilling permits and you have been indecisive on the remedies that would satisfy you. For nearly a year, you’ve maintained your de facto moratorium, which is shutting down new energy production in the Gulf.
For well over a year now, you’ve told Americans quite the opposite-that your policies will create jobs, lower energy costs and make us less dependent on foreign oil. You’ve told Americans that you’ve lifted the moratorium, when the facts show otherwise. Americans know a moratorium when they see one. Isn’t it time you started telling the truth?
While your disregard for the rule of law may placate environmental activists and the government-subsidized corporations clambering for alternative energy giveaways, the vast majority of Americans will only suffer the burden of your policies. Most Americans can’t afford to pay $4 for a gallon of gasoline or see their home heating bills skyrocket. They need jobs-they don’t want to be more beholden to those unstable and hostile regimes that your actions are ensuring will supply America’s energy.
Before your moratorium, more than 50,000 oil wells were drilled safely in the Gulf of Mexico. The fact that we earn an honest living serving those operations should in no way suggest that we aren’t concerned with the safety of our colleagues or the health of the Gulf. After all, thousands of us live here-we fish here, we shrimp here, and our children swim here. No one wants to pollute our beaches, put Americans out of work, or spend billions of dollars to clean up a spill. It’s in everyone’s best interests to drill safely.
Mr. President, your deliberate actions to strangle domestic energy production are putting people out of work, raising the price of fuel and weakening our national security. Your political agenda does not supersede American law.
Again, we remind you that Americans have suffered enough. Lift your de facto moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf and let Americans get back to work.
Signed by several top leaders in top offshore drilling
