The 7 Most Ridiculous Things Rush Limbaugh Has Said About BP’s Oil Spill

26 by Timothy Hurst on May 19, 2010

Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington

In the days and weeks following the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh confirmed that his grasp of offshore energy policy and technology is about as strong as Glenn Beck's grasp of U.S. public lands policy.

Two weeks ago, Treehugger's Brian Merchant put together a great list of the 7 stupidest statements made about the BP oil spill; Rush Limbaugh was the owner of two of those statements. But Limbaugh is spreading enough misinformation about the oil spill to warrant a list of his own.

And while Limbaugh might dismiss parsing of his "think pieces" as taking things out of context or that he shouldn't be criticized when he's just doing a radio show on the fly, that is exactly the problem. Stating outlandish speculation as fact to an audience of 14 is just a nuisance; spreading it to an audience of 14 million is dangerous.

[Thanks to the bang-up work by Media Matters for making these clips -- and for making them available.]

7. "We need to depoliticize the oil spill... we need to depoliticize the environment."

Besides the fact that depoliticizing the environment runs contrary to the very mission of what we do here, we found it both unusual and hypocritical that Mr. Limbaugh would make a public plea do depoliticize the oil spill and the environment considering his propensity to politicize just about everything that could ever be politicized (including this oil spill). Ironically, depoliticizing the environment is something many lefties have proposed for years when they argue that the science of climate change should speak for itself.

6. "This spill is nothing more than an opportunity for the left to continue to attack this country and to attack the people that make this country work."

The oil spill is only a political opportunity for the left? I'd like to remind Mr. Limbaugh that the leaking riser, blow-out preventer and sunken rig have dumped between 150,000 and 1.5 million barrels of crude oil into the gulf (thanks to obfuscations and hedging by BP and federal officials, the exact figure still remains unknown). I would also like to remind Limbaugh that there is an entire segment of "people that make this country work"--the Gulf states seafood industry-- that is unable to work because the Gulf Coast fishery is virtually closed to commercial fishing and will be for some time to come.

5. "It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is. Well, the turtles may take a hit for a while, but so what?" and... "Sea water is pretty tough stuff... oil has a tough time surviving."

While oil may be "natural," its presence in high volumes anywhere other than locked away in geological formations or sealed tanks is dangerous for all kinds of flora and fauna. Lead and mercury are "natural" too but you don't see anyone advocating that we dump it in the ocean. The same argument is echoed by some climate skeptics who pontificate about the "natural-ness" of carbon dioxide. The reasoning goes something like this: if it's found in the natural environment, it can't possibly be bad, no matter the volume.

Limbaugh later hedged on his statements about the natural properties of oil and said the media was making up things he said.

(Continued...)

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Larry Linn

Rush Limpball is a Big Fat Idiot. He was offered the chance to debate the statment, and even though he was granted the option of taking either side of the debate, he did not respond.
Kim Youmans

Oh course, Mr. Limbaugh will insist that all these comments are taken out of context…only people who regularly listen to his show will understand what he’s “actually” saying here.

In other words, you hae to be sad, pathetic and stupid to “get it.”
John Doe

Currently rethinking the idea of free speech.
ingrid

Perhaps the best way to communicate with Limbaugh is not endless stories on the internet but rather a nice demonstration at his residence.
Rush Limbaugh lives at 1495 N. Ocean Blvd Palm Beach Fl 33480
and he lists two business address which is probably the location of
his bunker….340 Royal Palm Way, West Palm Beach, Fl
Paul Cooper

well pot is natural… cant get him to say that he is for pot though…
joejoe doe

Of course go figure the oil spill was all Obama’s fault. Just like everything else huh. When is this jackass going to actually learn how to do research. Also for the record im not a fullon democrat, im just sick of this guy’s blabbermouth thinking hes always right and the Republicans are always right trying to get that in everybodys heads. Also i would like to point out I really dont care for Obama as it is either. But thats beside the point. The point is this guy rarely ever knows what hes talkin about and i feel sorry for people to actually believe him and follow him. Oh yea and the We still dont know what Obama’s done? Why dont u try actually going out and finding out. And his 5th comment about the turtles maybe im misunderstanding it but if its true, not that i care about PETA the least bit but i will laugh if they go after him cuz of that statement. Oh yea and depolicize the environment? Do you even know what that means? So you think its really a good idea to remove the oil spill from political activity insisting on nothing be done about it at all? ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME?
Bubba

I love Rush Limbaugh.
But then again, I love jockitch!
Babs

Tim, the problem lies with people thinking that Rush is speaking for Republicansand it is factual, his show is satire and needs to be viewed as such. He is the 1st to admit this, however people cling onto every word and treat his satire as truth.

I believe this is simply another case of government letting the people down, don’t waste time critizing a talk show host for his satire, democrat or republican, our government should have done much better.

What is most important is “where do we go from here”. Deep offshore drilling is too risky verses the rewards received in most Americans opinions, lets stop quibbling about what some talk show host says and get together and nudge the government to address the real issue, Deep Offshore Drilling!

Tyler

Babs, your comment neglected to include a vital participant in this fiasco while you seem to put majority blame on the government. There is plenty of blame to go around, including for those regulators that did not do anywhere near an adequate job in their duties, but the companies who own, operate, lease, whatever, they must bear some degree of responsibility for this, shouldn’t they? Would less regulations and taxes on these companies have prevented this? It’s my opinion it would have made it happen earlier, not later, as the lax attitudes toward safety and priority #1 on profits would have made this situation unavoidable. Moving rigs out deeper into the ocean seems to be a band-aid to the problem. To justify the cost of moving things further from shore, won’t the deposits need to be larger? If so, in a similar situation to this one where a catastrophic event has left us wondering what to do at an even deeper depth, what then?

Not every problem has the government as a root cause, but that’s a fundamental tenet of what Limbaugh/Hannity/etc say every single day. The only purpose of government is to further its own existence. The government doesn’t reflect the people, it only enslaves them. The market knows best and will only serve to benefit everyone who deserves it.

Joe

WOW!!! I guess the “left” doesn’t like the same things said about them and their president that they sid about the other side. Grow up!! Limbaugh is far far right but the writer of this article is so far left they cross each other out. Obama is also as far left as it is posible to get. GET OFF IT AND PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS! In otherwords stop complaining and help or just shut up! the writer of this article is just trying to put someone down. He is just his side f worthless.

Tyler

I can’t speak for the writer of this article, as this is the only one I’ve read of his. On the point of Obama being as far left as possible is simply not true.. The framing of issues in our country as of late, at least in my relatively short period of time watching the stuff, seems to be either willfully tilted toward conservatism or an almost painful contortion to give an ‘equal treatment’ regardless of what the facts are. More specifically, the current president is willing to trade away aspects of his own agenda, such as a public option(not even a single payer model was seriously discussed) in health care legislation or cap and trade. Yes, C&T is a market-based solution to the problem, perceived or real whatever your stance on it is, to carbon emissions. How about unions being angry about Obama not empowering them more since being in office? Or teachers’ unions being frustrated with merit(student grade-based) pay for educators? How about continued use and defense of many civil liberty-threatening aspects of the war on terror? Or is that double-thinked out by the “He’ll coddle enemies and pound domestic opponents” trope?

Whether it’s for profits and ratings or for actual complete and utter devotion to their particular brand of corporate conservatism, These talking heads leave absolutely no room for compromise whatsoever. They will attack Obama, Democrats and most pointedly Liberals/Progressives relentlessly, and it’s bled into the Republican party for far too long. Civil, democratic governance requires compromise. It requires meaningful dialogue between the elected representatives as well as with the people voting. From the ‘left’ or from the ‘right’, people operating with these tactics have no interest whatsoever in the democratic operation of the state.

/rant
http://kimswordonfood stiknbugprod

Are you honestly defending Rush? This writer has the right to comment Rush’s rhetoric, any which way he wants. The funny thing is Rush wants to take politics out of environment, but is also quick to complain the politician didn’t get there fast enough. That the politicians weren’t doing their job in this. If you don’t want it political then I guess you shouldn’t expect the politicians do anything then should you. So Obama actually did what he Rush wanted. So why is he bitching. This guy is dangerous and an idiot. America has just learned to love sensationalism a little too much.