Bombshell- Obama Adminstration knew BP “damn near blew up the rig” in March, told of major problems with Deep Water Horizon eight weeks before it blew

Rahm Emanuel went on national television today to announce that the fall elections would be about how the GOP would handle oil companies compared to the Democrats.   The statement is poetic justice considering the breaking news about what Obama knew about the dangers of the Deep Water Horizon and when he knew it.

According to Bloomberg News, as reported through TownHall, the Obama Administration was advised about serious problems with the BP well eight weeks before the explosion.  Memos from Obama’s MMS shows that BP reported the problem with huge cracks at the base of the well that were leaking oil and natural gas.

It seems as though the Obama team was asked for help.  Help which never arrived.  Eight weeks after the request for help was made, in February, the Deep Water Horizon rig blew.  Worse yet, the well almost blew out in March, which BP also reported to MMS, but Obama still did not intervene to shut it down.  Here’s part of the Bloomberg story:

While gas surges are common in oil drilling, companies have abandoned wells if they determine the risk is too high. When a Gulf well known as Blackbeard threatened to blow out in 2006, Exxon Mobil Corp. shut the project down.

“We don’t proceed if we cannot do so safely,” Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson told a House Energy and Commerce committee panel on June 15.

On March 10, BP executive Scherie Douglas e-mailed Frank Patton, the mineral service’s drilling engineer for the New Orleans district, telling him: “We’re in the midst of a well control situation.”

The incident was a “showstopper,” said Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has consulted with the Interior Department on offshore drilling safety. “They damn near blew up the rig.”

This news is an epic scandal. Obama received more than one million dollars in campaign cash from BP employees.  More money than any other person in history.  Obama’s MMS gave approval for the Deep Water Horizon last fall, and waived some permits to speed the well into production.  We’ll wait to see how long it is before this story explodes.  I am guessing that the conservative media will speed it along.