US questions oil production as disaster looms
Updated on 30 April 2010
President Obama reassures America that his administration is tackling the catastrophic Gulf Coast spill as environmentalists challenge the safety of US oil exploration, writes Job Rabkin.
President Barack Obama today rushed to reassure Americans that his administration is doing all it can to tackle the massive oil spill which is threatening an environmental catastrophe on America's Gulf Coast.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, the president said the government was doing "everything necessary to respond to this event" and was ready to help people along the coast affected by the disaster.
"BP is ultimately responsible under the law for paying the costs of response and cleanup operations," he said.
"But we are fully prepared to meet our responsibilities to any and all affected communities. And that’s why we’ve been working closely with state and local authorities since the day of the explosion."
Obama said he had ordered a full review of the accident, which would report back within 30 days. The review would assess whether new rules needed to be put in place to prevent another similar incident happening again.
Environmentalists point to the fact that the blowout preventer on the rig was not fitted with an acoustic valve, which can help ensure the well head is closed down in the event of an accident. Such valves are compulsory in Norway, but are not a legal requirement in the United States.
Today the president said the review would look into "what, if any, additional precautions and technologies should be required to prevent accidents like this from happening again.
"And we're going to make sure that any leases going forward have those safeguards," he added.
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The president also defended the administration's controversial decision to reverse a moratorium on offshore drilling.
"I continue to believe that domestic oil production is an important part of our overall strategy for energy security, but I've always said it must be done responsibly for the safety of our workers and our environment," he said.
The spill has put the White House in a spin, with officials under fire from environmentalists over the president's decision to authorise a massive expansion of drilling off America's coast.
For years, successive administrations have maintained a moratorium on offshore drilling because of environmental concerns. But the Obama administration reversed that for political reasons, hoping that allowing new drilling would help win over Republican support for climate change legislation in Congress.
That move infuriated environmentalists who claimed Obama had betrayed an often made campaign promise to maintain the moratorium.
Opponents are already squaring up for a fight. Florida Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, has written to the president demanding a halt to oil exploration off the US coast.
He said he was introducing legislation that would stop the Interior Department from using its authority to expand drilling, and suggested he may press for a congressional inquiry into whether the government was negligent in the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion on 20 April.
This morning, White House senior adviser David Axelrod rushed into studios to announce a freeze in any new drilling operations until a full investigation of the disaster had taken place.
"No additional drilling has been authorised, and none will until we find out what happened and whether there was something unique and preventable here. No domestic drilling in new areas is going to go forward until there is an adequate review," he said on ABC's Good Morning America.
The White House is keenly aware of the dangers of appearing not to be doing enough. While they have continually stressed BP's responsibility for the crisis, the ghost of Hurricane Katrina is hanging over the White House. President Bush's failure to step up to that disaster was widely seen as the final nail in the coffin of his administration.
Meanwhile Republicans have stayed eerily quiet about the spill, despite being keen advocates of offshore drilling.
During the 2008 campaign, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin roused rallies with cries of "drill, baby, drill".
Today that cry was just a tweet: "Having worked and lived thru Exxon oil spill, my family and I understand Gulf residents' fears. Our prayers are with you. All industry efforts must be employed," she said.
