Another Ban on Oil Drilling

EIN News says, "U.S. Won't Allow Drilling in Eastern Gulf. The Obama administration reversed course and said it wouldn't allow drilling off the Atlantic coast and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico near Florida, citing safety concerns after the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. (wsj.com)".

This is ridiculous. We are crying for independent energy, of which the most easily available is crude oil and yet we will not allow ourselves to harvest it.

Granted, there is some environmental risk in oil drilling. However, there is always risk in about everything we do. Even the mandatory restriction on Gulf and Atlantic drilling near Florida risks continued dependence on Middle Eastern oil, with it's obvious disadvantages.

What do the people of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi say? Are they willing to take a low-level risk of possible environmental damage with the upside possibility of improving their economy. Don't these people have any rights or is this just another federal government mandate with no consideration of the desires of the people involved?

I doubt that President Obama came up with this idea all by himself. It probably came from Ken Salazar of the Energy Department, who I previously suggested a few times be removed from his job.

I realize that Congress is fairly well tied up with unemployment benefits, budget balancing and tax increases, but there ought to be a little room for Congress to also pay attention to these other aspects of the Administration which continue to reinforce the collapse of US economic power.