There was an oil spill on Capitol Hill recently, when the truth about tax giveaways to the oil industry spilled from House Speaker John Boehner's mouth. Asked why the oil industry should continue to receive $4 billion in tax giveaways while Congress cuts programs for people in poverty and the House prepares to vote next week on legislation to expedite offshore development without new safety requirements, the speaker sprang a leak. Read more

Deepwater Horizon fire. Photo by DVIDSHUB, Flickr.

Even after the Gulf oil spill and as the evidence that BP sidestepped safety precautions mounts, it’s alarming that decision makers continue to give the oil and gas industry unbridled liberties to drill without precaution in the public’s lands and waters. Read more

Polar bears, bowhead whales, and native communities are safe from the oil spill devastation that their Gulf coast counterparts are still dealing with. The Obama Administration has announced that they are postponing oil drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off of Alaska’s northern coast until at least 2011. That includes Shell Oil’s plans to do risky exploratory drilling this summer. The decision comes as part of a larger report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster that was delivered to the President by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Read more