Stupid Presidential Tricks
Seven men have been selected by the President to head a “drilling commission” to investigate and recommend for the future of off-shore drilling. This article piqued my interest. It makes two claims, that these individuals have little to no engineering (scientific?) expertise regarding offshore drilling and that they have a definite bias against drilling, i.e., that the fix is already in by loading it with politicians and environmental activists. Go ahead, skim the linked article. I’ll wait. …. now that you’re back, here’s what I can find on the web so far about these individuals. It might be also noted that the President called this a “bi-partisan” commission. We’ll see how that plays out.
The Two chairmen:
- Mr William Reilly (wiki) — Not a scientist nor engineer, he has a BA in history and a Harvard law degree. Was the head of the EPA under Democratic administrations and President of the World Wildlife Fund. Mr Reilly is a Democrat.
- Mr Bob Graham (wiki) — Not a scientist nor engineer, he has a political science degree from U of Florida and a LLB (bachelors of Law) from Harvard. Was governor of Florida for a term and unsuccessfully ran in in the 2004 primary Presidential bid. He is a lifelong Democrat.
Our five members announced last week.
- Frances G. Beinecke (no wiki entry, mukety relationships) — Has an MA from Yale in “environmental studies” (and yes the scare quotes shows my bias as a physicist). Has been on the NRDC for 35 years. She is an anti-nuclear activist. He inherited much wealth from her family ties. I’m guessing Democrat as the profile does not indicate.
- Donald Boesch (no wiki, here is his auto-bio) — His publication list, Mr Boesch is a Professor at U of Maryland heading their Center for Environmental Studies. Political affiliation is not given. Wanna guess, uhm, Democrat.
- Terry Garcia (no wiki, auto-bio) — VP of National Geographic, Mr Garcia has a BA in international studies from American University and a law degree from George Washington U. Google shows him on a list of contributors to Mr Obama’s campaign, uhm, so a likely Democrat again.
- Cherry A. Murray (wiki) — is the first person on the list with any (real) engineering credentials, alas not in mechanical engineering but instead in optical data storage. No political affiliation given. Wanna bet?
- Frances Ulmer (wiki) — BA from U of Wisconsin (Madison) in … (wait for it) … economics and political science. She is a career politician as a (suprise!) Democrat.
Filed under: Environment • Government • Mark O. • Politics
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This is truly amazing, if not surprising.
I hadn’t seen the WSJ article, and don’t have a subscription. I had seen the claim elsewhere, NRO probably. But nowhere have I seen research as thorough as yours. My hat is off to you.
More, you’ve proved the case pretty conclusively that BHO is at best disingenuous and at worst a liar.
Looks like according to that wikipedia article, the co-chair, William K. Reilly, is a Republican, not a Democrat. He served in the EPA under George W Bush and worked for oil company Conoco, as well as # DuPont, which provides technologies for oil and gas extraction and Energy Future Holdings, a Texas-based electric utility company.
Your wiki article notes…
President Obama met with the co-chairs for the first time June 1. At that time, the president was quoted as saying of the co-chairs “They have my full support to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor.” Appearing on the Diane Rehm Show the same day, congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) responded to the suggestion that an oil industry representative be appointed to the commission by pointing to Republican Reilly’s position with Conoco.
One Dem Co-chair is a Democrat. One is a Republican.
Bipartisan.
Is it LOADED with oil industry people and apologists, like such groups may have been done under Bush’s administration? No. Does a commission looking into the environmental sustainability of offshore drilling have a good number of environmentalists? Yes, as is only right.
I think that having coal and oil oversight and “environmental” regulation overseen by industry hacks instead of environmentalists in Bush’s days has skewed some people’s expectations. Environmental oversight OUGHT to be done by environmentalists, along with input and participation from industry types.
As it appears we have with this commission.
Doesn’t that make sense?
Tom:
More, you’ve proved the case pretty conclusively that BHO is at best disingenuous and at worst a liar.
A liar how? Does bipartisan mean that there are more GOP than Dems involved? Or that it’s evenly divided? Or just that both groups are involved? Or did you make that statement on the false assumption that neither of the co-chairs was a GOP?
If you made the statement under false understanding, will you be apologizing for the charge of “liar?”
Dan,
It has been touted far and wide that Mr Reilly is a Republican. It was pointed out to me on my blog that Mr Reilly’s EPA position was during the first Bush Admin. That was my oversight. In none of the biographical information (such as here here was a party affiliation given.
The substantial claim against the commission is that it has no engineering or geological expertise at all. Its unclear to me why every single living engineer and geologist is a “oil industry person or apologist”. Your question is good.
I agree it should have some. But importantly, it should not have no engineers or geologists. Oddly enough this commission has more professional politicians and lawyers than qualified environmentalists. Why don’t you find that problematic
This isn’t just about “environmental oversight” it is making technical judgments over what is possible and making cost effective evaluations. This panel is not qualified to do that.
No. It doesn’t make sense.
Dan,
I’d have thought we’d be better served with a commission having no lawyers or politicians at all and a mix of non- or weakly politically affiliated academic and industrial individuals with engineering, geology, and environmental backgrounds.
Dan,
Oh, and one more thing. You tout the Conoco board membership of Mr Reilly, but fail to note (or notice?) his World Wildlife fund and National Geographic posts.
You had already mentioned the WWF connection. I’m not especially familiar with Reilly – just relying upon YOUR source, which calls him a Republican. I tried looking it up and didn’t find anything that confirmed it one way or the other.
I believe it reasonable from what I remember and from what I’ve read (that he was appointed by Bush, for instance, and he grew up in a religious and conservative home) that he is a conservative Conservative (ie, an environmentally concerned republican, a rare species, but not extinct… ha!), but if you have some other source, I’d be glad to check it out.
So, you’re saying that your main complaint is that there are no engineers on this commission? I misunderstood, then. I thought when you said…
Now those who say Mr Obama is not a bald-faced liar will recall that he called this a “bi-partisan” commission who will serve as our experts in deep water drilling and engineering. How much more bald-faced does one have to get to get the title?
You were calling him a liar for calling something bipartisan (or “bipartisan,” if you prefer, with scare quotes) that isn’t bipartisan.
So, where is the lie, then?
As to the concern about being loaded with environmentalists and too light on “real” scientists, I might be more concerned if I distrusted the organizations and groups these folk were associated with, but I don’t.
Besides that, they all seem very well educated and informed folk who are entirely capable of seeking informed opinions of experts in those areas where they’re lacking knowledge.
Would it be good to have one deep water engineer expert on the panel? Sure, I’ll give you that. Does the absence of one mean this group is a farce? No, I don’t see that.
One fella’s opinion.