Politics
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/us/politics/15obama.html?th&emc=th
Obama Vows End to ‘Cozy’ Oversight of Oil Industry
By JOHN M. BRODER and HELENE COOPER
Published: May 14, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday angrily assailed the finger-pointing among the three companies involved in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a “ridiculous spectacle,” even as his own administration came under criticism for failing to do enough to prevent an environmental calamity.
Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Obama with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, left, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu in the Rose Garden on Friday.
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In remarks during an appearance in the Rose Garden, Mr. Obama also criticized what he called the “cozy relationship” between the government and the oil industry that has existed for decades, even into his own administration. He acknowledged that federal agencies had failed to ensure that safety and environmental standards were being met and announced a thorough review of the oversight process.
“I will not tolerate any more finger-pointing or irresponsibility,” he said. “This is a responsibility that all of us share.”
The president’s comments reflected impatience by the White House over BP’s failure to stop the leaking of oil into the gulf, and alarm that growing public ire could soon overwhelm the administration. White House officials have been meeting daily about how to respond to the spill, but amid reports that the administration may have been hasty in issuing drilling permits to BP and other oil companies, Mr. Obama summoned top cabinet officials to the Oval Office on Friday to discuss how to increase the government’s response.
As environmental groups criticized the administration’s record on drilling, Democrats tried to take steps Friday to prevent the issue from causing even more damage in an election year. The Democratic National Committee sent an e-mail message to reporters trumpeting an article in The Atlantic Monthly that cast the administration’s response to the oil spill in a favorable light compared with PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
Most Democrats have refrained from directly criticizing the White House’s response to the spill, even as the calls for fundamental reform of regulation of offshore drilling have grown louder. But with each day the spill is not contained, and with new estimates that it may be many times larger than the government has said, the peril is rising for the administration.
Next week, top administration officials, including the cabinet officers directly in charge of the response, will appear before several Congressional committees — and the questions, and possible blame, could shift from the companies to the administration.
In the gulf, BP technicians were preparing the latest of several efforts to plug the leaking well and siphon off some of the oil. BP planned to try to insert a tube into the open end of the drilling riser, the source of the biggest leak. A second intervention, a so-called top hat, is already on the seabed, waiting to be maneuvered over the biggest leak in case the insertion pipe fails.
A relief well is being drilled to block the leaking well. Officials said it had reached 9,000 feet below the ocean surface, about halfway to the planned intersection point with the original well.
Government officials have approved the use of chemical oil dispersants deep underwater after several tests and consultation with scientists, according to Rear Adm. Mary Landry of the Coast Guard, the top commander on the scene. She also said that the weather forecast for the next few days was favorable, so operations to skim and burn oil from the surface would resume.
Mr. Obama reiterated that he intended to break up the beleaguered federal Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, “so that the part of the agency which permits oil and gas drilling and collects royalties will be separate from the part of the agency in charge of inspecting oil rigs and platforms and enforcing the law.” That way, Mr. Obama said, “there’s no conflict of interest, real or perceived.”
David Rothkopf, a former Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration, said that Mr. Obama was trying to walk a fine line between capitalizing on populist anger over the oil spill and alienating the business community, which he needs for his jobs agenda.
“I think one of the risks associated with his rhetoric on the spill is that it hardens the divide between the Democratic Party and the business community,” Mr. Rothkopf said. “And that’s something that while it seems to be in the spirit of the moment now, could have serious ramifications come election time.”
That, he said, could result in money from corporate America going to the Republican Party.
Even as Mr. Obama outlined the government’s latest actions in response to the spill, his administration was coming under fire for allowing the minerals service to continue with business as usual in granting the permits even after Mr. Obama came to office vowing to clean it up.
Environmentalists and proponents of greater restrictions on offshore oil drilling questioned, for instance, Mr. Obama’s decision to expand offshore oil drilling — announced in March — before first tackling the close relationships between government and industry at the agency.
“The ultimate question is how did this decision to expand offshore drilling get made in the first place?” said Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, an environmental group opposed to offshore drilling.
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