The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
September 7, 2010

Regulators Exempted Mariner Wells from Environmental Review
-----------------------------------------------------------



Newly disclosed records show at least three of the wells linked to the
offshore rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last week were exempted
from environmental review before their approval. Thirteen workers were
rescued after a fire broke out on a platform operated by Mariner Energy
Thursday morning. According to the Center for Biological Diversity,
regulators approved the wells with the same type of environmental waiver
used to approve BP’s Deepwater Horizon project. The Obama administration
has since banned the waivers for deepwater drilling, but not for the
shallow-water wells served by Mariner Energy.



.