This from Obama’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management satrap Michael Bromwich today…

“Even when the moratorium is lifted, you’re not going to see drilling going on the next day or even the next week,” Michael Bromwich, head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said at a hearing in Washington today. “It’s going to take some time.”

Now, perhaps Bromwich’s statement is evidence of remarkable candor in front of the President’s oil spill commission – and in such a case we commend him for showing something significantly lacking in American government under this president.

But that statement together with his statement that…

Drillers such as Apache Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. will face “significant” new requirements, Bromwich told the presidential commission investigating the disaster. It’s unclear how many drillers are prepared to meet the new rules on well design and safety equipment, he said.

…will all but insure that the five rigs which have already bolted from the Gulf rather than stick around and burn shareholder money in the hopes that the moratorium will be lifted won’t be the only losses.

Thanks for all you do, Mikey.

We continue to hear that Bromwich’s boss, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, has been begging the Obama administration to lift the moratorium to no avail (energy/climate tsarina Carol Browner, who has been the brains behind the administration’s oil spill response, has stood in the way of any resumption in offshore drilling). Only four offshore drilling permits have been issued by the federal government since the spill despite the administration’s denial that a shallow-water drilling ban is in place, and that’s Browner’s doing as well.

Tomorrow, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who last week put a hold on the president’s nomination for the new Office of Management and Budget director in an effort to force an end to the moratorium, will testify in front of the commission. Landrieu has finally decided to get tough with this administration on the drilling issue; if she follows through with her current stance this could be an interesting week.