"For too long -- for a decade or more -- there's been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill," Obama said. "We will trust, but we will verify."

probably means those invitations are in the mail - you know, kind of like how he "scolded" the insurance and health industry execs in public, and then had them wearing a path to the Oval Office for months as health "reform" was being "worked on."

Just wait for it - I know it's coming.

As for "trust, but verify," the only thing that is likely to be verified is that the money keeps on flowing into campaign coffers.  As usual.  And a WH "summit" will be the first step.

    "Now, from the day he took office as Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar has recognized these problems and he's worked to solve them.  Oftentimes he has been slammed by the industry, suggesting that somehow these necessary reforms would impede economic growth.  Well, as I just told Ken, we are going to keep on going to do what needs to be done.

    "And so I've asked Secretary Salazar to conduct a top-to-bottom reform of the Minerals Management Service.  This week, he announced that the part of the agency which permits oil and gas drilling and collects royalties will be separated from the part of the agency in charge of inspecting the safety of oil rigs and platforms and enforcing the law.  That way, there's no conflict of interest, real or perceived.

In the wake of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has continued to issue "categorical exclusions" for oil companies, allowing them to bypass the last stage of environmental review before proceeding with drilling projects, an Interior Department official told ABC News Wednesday.

But, the official emphasized, the problem is current law, which only gives the Department of the Interior 30 days to conduct the final review.

With the resources and that amount of time, it's not really possible to conduct a full environmental impact, said the Interior Department official, who spoke to ABC News on condition of anonymity.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday that he is submitting a proposal to Congress that among other steps would "increase MMS's authority to review exploration plans that companies submit.  Currently, MMS is required by Congressional mandate to review exploration plans within 30 days.  We want to increase the review period to 90 days, with an option to extend, to provide more time to conduct additional environmental analysis on exploration plans. Additional time to review exploration plans would supplement additional environmental reviews that are conducted at several stages of the leasing and development process."

Critics say the Interior Department needs to be more aggressive.

Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, told ABC News that the Interior Department is in fact able to conduct reviews in 30 days, as they do in Alaska.

"They have 30 days and instead they do an approval in 24 hours" with the exemption, Suckling said. "They're just rubber-stamping this stuff."

[snip]

"It is inconceivable that MMS could look out its window at what is likely the worst oil spill in American history, then rubber stamp new BP drilling permits based on BP's patently false statements that an oil spill cannot occur and would not be dangerous if it did," Suckling said. "Heads need to start rolling at MMS."

Suckling says that since April 20, 2010, the day of the BP disaster, MMS has approved 27 new offshore drilling projects, 26 of which were approved "under the same environmental review exemption used to approve the disastrous BP drilling that is fouling the Gulf and its wildlife."

[snip]

Suckling said that for "Secretary Salazar to allow MMS to exempt 26 new oil wells from environmental review in the midst of the ongoing Gulf crisis shows an extraordinary lapse of judgment. It is inconceivable that his attention is apparently on providing BP with new environmentally exempted offshore oil wells instead of shutting down the corrupt process which put billion of dollars into BP's pocket and millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico."

So, Obama claims that Salazar has been working on this since he took the Cabinet position; am I the only one who finds that hard to believe?

And, Donald, it is the president's pattern to scold whatever particular industry is in the cross-hairs - the financial industry, the health insurance industry - to gain maximum optics, and then...when the cameras are off and the microphones have been put away, it all falls apart, or, it turns out that it was mostly just talk.

Yes, I reacted to what I read in Salon, and yes, I did not read the totality of Obama's remarks, and maybe I should have; but the sad truth is that I don't trust what he says, because he doesn't seem to ever back it up.

That has nothing to do with journalistic tactics, Donald, that has to do with Obama's track record; if you can show me that this is not his pattern, or that what he says has proved to be to the benefit of those of us without the power and influence of the corporate world, I would be happy to be informed.

I've found that Law & Order was always a pretty dependable thing I could comfortably slide into when I just wanted some drama to watch.  Oh, well.