The Little Old Sausage Maker

Bismarck said that you don't want to see how sausages or laws are created. Right on, Otto!

In 2005, Dick Cheney convened a panel of experts to craft The Energy Policy Act. To encourage drilling off America's coasts, it exempted deep-water operations from paying royalties to the government and from that tedious environmental analysis. After all, what could possibly go wrong drilling 10,000 feet below a 5,000 foot deep sea bed? "Drill, baby, drill", indeed. Naturally, the 2005 Energy Policy Act became law.

Then came the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Congressional Democrats are pushing a bill that requires environmental analysis before deep-water drilling, adds royalties, bans companies with poor safety records (like BP) from obtaining off-shore leases, and creates new standards for blowout preventers. This is not exactly locking the barn door after the horse has run off, but is certainly making sure there's a lock there should anyone decide to use it.

Republicans accuse the Democratic majority of acting in haste before the true causes of the rig explosion are known. The American Petroleum Institute said that the bill "would threaten American jobs, the nation's economy, and its energy security." If well-funded lobbying and filibuster threats can delay bill passage past the upcoming elections, there's a good chance that it will never become law.

Clearly, what we need to prevent future deep-water drilling disasters is that little old sausage-maker Dick Cheney to switch sides on the issue. He can get anything passed into law. We need to convince him that his mountain of Halliburton stock would be worth a lot more if the new law required all environmental assessments be done by Halliburton and all blowout preventers carry the Halliburton seal of approval. Suddenly, the bill would be creating jobs, boosting the economy, and improving our energy security.

Regardless of how it is made, the critical question is who gets the sausage after the law is passed.