The record shows that Obama and his Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar—who has a record of criticizing the Bush administration from the right for being too restrictive on the oil industry—took numerous actions over the past 16 months to accelerate drilling in the Gulf.
As the World Socialist Web Site noted on May 10 (“Obama administration blocked efforts to stop BP oil drilling before explosion”), the administration intervened in a federal court case in support of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and Salazar specifically cited BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation as one that should be allowed to go forward.
An initial court decision—handed out only days after Obama gave BP an environmental waiver for its Deepwater Horizon rig—ruled that oil drilling in the Gulf was being carried out without sufficient study of its impact. Salazar praised a subsequent court decision, handed down in July 2009, which allowed the BP project to go forward and thus condemned much of the US Gulf coast to environmental catastrophe.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/pers-m28.shtml

“… the administration intervened in a federal court case in support of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and Salazar specifically cited BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation as one that should be allowed to go forward.
An initial court decision—handed out only days after Obama gave BP an environmental waiver for its Deepwater Horizon rig—ruled that oil drilling in the Gulf was being carried out without sufficient study of its impact. Salazar praised a subsequent court decision, handed down in July 2009, which allowed the BP project to go forward and thus condemned much of the US Gulf coast to environmental catastrophe.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/pers-m28.shtml