Saturday, May 15, 2010
President Barack Obama equanimity is his pride, and he rarely uses the bully pulpit of the Presidency for explicit criticism. Obama shows his total displeasure towards the energy giant BP and other companies involved with the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill. At a Rose Garden press conference Friday Obama said, “The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I wasn’t.”
Reporters and environmental groups have unearthed disturbing proof that the MMS (Mineral Management Service), the Interior Department agency that is required to get permit to allow offshore drilling, failed to do any meaningful regulation of offshore drilling, in the week since the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
Obama said, “For too long, for a decade or more, there has been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill”. “It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurance of safety from the oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore”.
Oil is spilling and so far, nothing has yet worked to stop it. Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer said, “We know the most important thing to do is find a way to stop the flow as expediently as possible”. “The concept of this is simple, but the simple problem is actually employing it at 5,000 feet.” There is rough estimation of the spill rate, which is about 5,000 barrels a day. In an analysis carried out by NPR, independent experts put the spill at a range of 56,000 to 84,000 barrels a day.
On Friday Democratic Representatives Edward Markey said in a letter to BP, “I am concerned that an underestimation of the flow may be impeding the ability to solve the leak”. The BP oil spill has exposed the fact that country will remain vulnerable until it breaks its addiction to oil.
