Gulf residents and community leaders vented their increasingly grave concerns about the widespread health issues brought on by the three-month-long oil spill.
The companies get to skirt the full environmental review Obama promised offshore drilling projects would have to face, and mostly due to political reasons.
Drilling will resume but with stricter rules, among them an obligation that companies "certify that the rig has complied with all new and existing rules."
The existing $75 million cap on damages for offshore drilling companies is a bailout every bit as disgusting as those recently bestowed upon Wall Street.
Halliburton's failed cementing job likely led to oil blowout in the Gulf -- but there's no mess big enough to take the shine off these tumor-like companies.
