White House Returns Science to Its Rightful Place

At least that's what Obama promised, but their actions indicate that their vision of the rightful place for science is something that can be molded to meet whatever the Administration's desires demand:

The White House rewrote crucial sections of an Interior Department report to suggest an independent group of scientists and engineers supported a six-month ban on offshore oil drilling, the Interior inspector general says in a new report.

In the wee hours of the morning of May 27, a staff member to White House energy adviser Carol Browner sent two edited versions of the department report’s executive summary back to Interior. The language had been changed to insinuate the seven-member panel of outside experts – who reviewed a draft of various safety recommendations – endorsed the moratorium, according to the IG report obtained by POLITICO.

“The White House edit of the original DOI draft executive summary led to the implication that the moratorium recommendation had been peer-reviewed by the experts,” the IG report states, without judgment on whether the change was an intentional attempt to mislead the public.

The six-month ban on offshore drilling installed in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill became a major political issue over the summer, as Gulf State lawmakers and industry groups charged the White House with unfairly threatening thousands of jobs. House Republicans have said they plan on investigating the circumstances surrounding the moratorium when they take power next year.

There was never a good scientific reason to ban drilling in the Gulf because of problems at one well. All they accomplished was the end of thousands of jobs in the Gulf region and the repositioning of a number of drilling rigs to other parts of the world. Those rigs won't be coming back anytime soon...and neither will those jobs.

Oh, and it looks like the fishing closures that occurred when it was feared that fisherman would be pulling in contaminated critters has resulted in a tripling of fish stocks in the area.  The devastation that was forecast for the area because of oil and dispersants just didn't happen.