Obama Sheltered BP's Deepwater Horizon Rig from Regulatory Requirement

Last year the Obama administration granted oil giant BP a special exemption from a legal requirement that it produce a detailed environmental impact study on the possible effects of its Deepwater Horizon drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico, an article Wednesday in the Washington Post reveals.

Federal documents show that the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) gave BP a "categorical exclusion" on April 6, 2009 to commence drilling with Deepwater Horizon even though it had not produced the impact study required by a law known as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The report would have included probable ecological consequences in the event of a spill.

The exemption came less than one month after BP had requested it in a March 10 "exploration plan" submitted to the MMS. The plan said that because a spill was "unlikely," no additional "mitigation measures other than those required by regulation and BP policy will be employed to avoid, diminish or eliminate potential impacts on environmental resources." BP also assured the MMS that any spill would not seriously hurt marine wildlife and that "due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected."

Kierán Suckling, director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Post that the Obama administration's exemption effectively "put BP entirely in control," adding, "The agency's oversight role has devolved to little more than rubber-stamping British Petroleum's self-serving drilling plans."

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Health and Safety Rules to Guard Pupils Against Dangers of Singing and Spicy Food

Schools are being warned to follow new health and safety rules designed to protect pupils from musical instruments, singing with a dry mouth, spicy food, a helicopter landing in the playing field and other bizarre hazards.'

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Wear Goggles When Using Blu-Tack: The Safety Rules Ruining Education

Staff told how they had been subjected to a series of increasingly bizarre guidelines to stop schools being sued in the event of an accident.

A teacher said one school ordered adults and children to wear goggles when using Blu-Tack.

Another told how a school banned them from using spray foam when marking out spaces in case a child slips and "drowns" in it.

And at one primary school, a three-legged race was dropped from sports day because it was too dangerous.

The disclosures are made in a survey of almost 600 school staff by Teachers' TV.

Almost half of those polled said health and safety rules were now "too restrictive", negatively impacting on pupils' education.

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Coastguards Can't Start a Rescue Until They Fill Out a Healthy and Safety Assessment

Coastguards have been ordered to fill in a health and safety questionnaire before they can respond to calls for help.
All 400 of Britain's rescue units have been told that before they travel to an accident scene they must complete a 'vehicle pre-journey risk assessment'.
It is feared lives may be lost as vital minutes could be taken up with the assessments just as rescuers are preparing their response to emergency callouts.

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'Killjoy' Council Bosses Blasted For Threatening Children's Pantomime With Police Raids

The amateur players in a village Christmas panto had no difficulty identifying the villains of this year’s show - and they aren’t even in the script.
For 17 years, the ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls of Peterculter, Aberdeenshire, have staged a show in the village hall - starring themselves.
Now killjoy council bosses have threatened them with a police raid on the first night of their Christmas ‘run’ - because their show contravenes health and safety laws.

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Health and Safety Gone Mad as Hospital Bans Sponge Cakes

Volunteers at a seaside town’s hospital have spent decades baking cakes to raise money for equipment the NHS cannot afford.
But now the hospital has banned home-made cakes from its fundraising events – because of health and safety fears.
Officials at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, Cumbria, claim the League of Friends’ sponge cakes and tea loaves contravene guidelines.

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