Obama slams BP and partners over oil spill
Updated on 14 May 2010
President Obama criticises "ridiculous spectacle" of firms trading blame for huge Gulf of Mexico oil slick, as claims emerge that approvals for BP's Deepwater Horizon to drill in the area were granted without permits.
President Obama today slammed the companies involved in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for a "ridiculous spectacle" of publicly trading blame over the accident.
The 20 April Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 workers and triggered what could eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and become the worst environmental disaster in US history.
He said: "I have to say, though, I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter. You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else.
"What really matters is this: there is oil leaking ... and we need to stop it as soon as possible.
"There's enough responsibility to go round. And all parties should be willing to accept it."
Obama repeated a demand that BP must pay for the spill's cleanup and other economic impact on the Gulf region but said the US government would use "every available resource" to stop oil from coming ashore.
He said he would not "rest or be satisfied" until the leak was stopped at its source.
Obama also said he directed US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to undertake a "top-to-bottom" review of the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling.
He added: "For too long, for a decade or more, there's 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 assurances of safety from the oil companies."
Obama's criticism came after The New York Times reports that the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) granted the approvals – including one for the well drilled by BP's Deepwater Horizon rig – without gaining permits from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has responsibility for protecting endangered species and marine mammals.
The NOAA had warned before the Gulf of Mexico spill that drilling in the area affects local wildlife.
An MMS spokesperson has said the agency had full consultations with NOAA, but declined to respond to questions about whether the agency had obtained the relevant permits.
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Oil has continued to gush from the site of the Deepwater Horizon rig for three weeks at the rate of an estimated 5,000 barrels a day. The spill threatens to become the worst environmental disaster in US history.
But US National Public Radio reported last night that the 5,000 barrels calculation could be a significant under-estimate and that up to 70,000 barrels of oil may now be spewing into the sea.
Expert Steven Werely analysed footage of the leak, released earlier this week, and concluded: "We're talking more than a factor of 10 difference between what I calculate and the number that's being thrown around."
But BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, interviewed in today’s Guardian, claims the Gulf of Mexico spill is "relatively tiny" compared to the size the ocean it is polluting.
"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," he says. "The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."
