Still No Permits After BP (NYSE:BP) Oil Spill

The Obama administration continues to drag its feet in awarding deepwater drilling permits to companies after the BP (NYSE:BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said, "We are carefully and rigorously reviewing drilling plans. I am quite confident we will again get to the point where we can begin issuing deepwater permits."

When asked about the possible effects from the Libyan and Middle Eastern crisis, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said it was "not changing at all what we are doing here," and weren't in a hurry to issue permits.

It seem he and Obama better start getting a sense of urgency, as it should have happened long ago on the basis of American oil demand and needs.

Even with a new rapid-response systems in place the Obama administration refuses to grant the drilling permits, suggesting they're attempting to require perfection no human being or company could provide, probably based on political expediency rather than the good of the country.