Anger at White House over oil spill role
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Anna Fifield in Washington and agencies
Published: May 23 2010 18:43 | Last updated: May 24 2010 14:31
The Obama administration is facing a rising tide of anger against its handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and acknowledged on Sunday 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 [BP] out of the way” if necessary.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Energy groups warned over accidents - May-23.In depth: BP oil spill - May-06.Obama launches commission into oil spill - May-22.Blog: Energy source - Oct-12.White House accuses BP of ‘falling short’ - May-21.Confusion over scale of oil spill pollution - May-20..BP on Monday acknowledged that it was siphoning less oil than previously estimated from the well. Last week, the company said it was catching up to 5,000 barrels a day, but now says it caught about 2,010 bpd on average. The oil giant said that its next planned effort to contain the spill, which will involve blocking the leak with heavy fluids and then cement, has a 60 per cent to 70 per cent chance of success.
Thad Allen, the coast guard commandant in charge of co-ordinating the administration’s response, said he trusted Tony Hayward, BP chief executive, and stopping the leak was ultimately in the hands of private industry.
“They have the eyes and ears that are down there. They are necessarily the modality by which this is going to get solved,” Mr Allen told CNN.
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, George W. Bush.
An editorial in The Times-Picayune, a New Orleans newspaper, castigated the administration on Sunday for appearing “timid” in its dealing with BP since the rig explosion.
Mr Obama at the weekend created an independent national commission to study the Gulf spill and make recommendations 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.
In a statement on Monday, Mr Hayward said: “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.”
He added: “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 efforts”.
BP said the cost of the response to date amounted to about $760m, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs. It said it was too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities.
The fallout from the spill continued to drag on BP’s share price, which fell 3.7 per cent in early London trading to 487.93p. The stock has lost more than 23 per cent of its value since the spill occurred in April.
Separately, the White House is set to release its findings by the end of this week following an initial 30-day probe into the Deepwater accident, which killed 11 men. The report is expected to include recommendations on how the administration should handle deepwater and other 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, while an independent body studied the spill and its causes.
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