THE OBAMA administration is facing a rising tide of anger against its handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and has acknowledged that it did not have the technical capabilities to step in and fix the gusher on its own.
Under scrutiny, the White House delivered mixed messages about BP’s role in the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior, lashed out against the company at a news conference on Sunday, saying it had missed “deadline after deadline” in attempts to seal the oil well and he was ready to “push it [BP] out of the way” if necessary.
Thad Allen, the coast guard commandant in charge of co-ordinating the administration’s response, said however he trusted Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, and stopping the leak was ultimately in the hands of private industry.
The sense of helplessness may turn into a big political problem for Barack Obama, elected president on a promise that he would be more competent and responsive in times of national crisis than his predecessor.
An editorial in the Times-Picayune, a New Orleans newspaper, castigated the administration on Sunday for appearing "timid" in its dealing with BP.
Mr Obama at the weekend created an independent national commission to study the Gulf spill and recommend on how to prevent future spills. The commission, to be headed by former Florida governor and senator Bob Graham and former Environmental Protection Agency chief William Reilly, is due to report in six months.
Mr Hayward said yesterday: “We are committed to providing the American people with the information they need to understand the environmental impact from the spill and the response steps that have been taken.
“BP is working hand-in-hand with federal, state and local governments to gather data on the seabed and in the water, and to incorporate those lessons so that we can continually improve the effectiveness of our response.”
BP said the cost of the response to date amounted to about $760 million (€615 million), including the cost of containment, relief-well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs. It said it was too early to quantify other potential liabilities.
The White House is set to release findings by the end of this week following an initial 30-day inquiry into the accident, which killed 11 men. The report is expected to include recommendations on how the administration should handle offshore drilling applications.
Bruce Babbitt, former secretary of the interior under Bill Clinton, said that, given the administration’s limited ability to stop the leak, Mr Obama needed to “regain the confidence of the American public” by ensuring that the “deep dysfunctions” in the oil industry would be dealt with.
The oil industry had in effect been self-regulating for years, he said. He urged the administration to issue an extended moratorium on some offshore drilling, at least for a year. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010