Earlier today, the President took questions from the press at the White House on the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. During his opening remarks, the President updated the American people on the “top kill” procedure that was approved yesterday. This procedure attempts to plug the well with densely packed mud to reduce or stop the flow of oil. It’s still too soon to tell if the procedure will work.
The President also clarified the role the Federal Government has played in the response since Day 1:
The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort. As far as I’m concerned, BP is responsible for this horrific disaster, and we will hold them fully accountable on behalf of the United States as well as the people and communities victimized by this tragedy. We will demand that they pay every dime they owe for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused. And we will continue to take full advantage of the unique technology and expertise they have to help stop this leak.
But make no mistake: BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance. I’ve designated Admiral Thad Allen – who has nearly four decades of experience responding to such disasters – as the National Incident Commander, and if he orders BP to do something to respond to this disaster, they are legally bound to do it. So, for example, when they said they would drill one relief well to stem this leak we demanded a backup and ordered them to drill two. And they are in the process of drilling two.
The President emphasized that the government would do everything in it’s power to stop the leak and clean up the mess and was employing the best and brightest minds from around the country to solve this problem. In addition to cleaning up the oil, the Administration is also focused on restoring the livelihoods of families who rely on the Gulf to make a living
We’re also doing whatever it takes to help the men and women whose livelihoods have been disrupted and even destroyed by this spill -– everyone from fishermen to restaurant and hotel owners. So far the Small Business Administration has approved loans and allowed many small businesses to defer existing loan payments. At our insistence, BP is paying economic injury claims, and we’ll make sure that when all is said and done, the victims of this disaster will get the relief that they are owed. We’re not going to abandon our fellow citizens. We’ll help them recover and we will help them rebuild.
To ensure that a spill of this magnitude never happens again, President Obama outlined immediate steps the Department of the Interior will take to reform the Minerals Management Service, which is responsible for issuing drilling leases and regulating oil facilities:
Additionally, after reading the report’s recommendations with Secretary Salazar and other members of my administration, we’re going to be ordering the following actions: First, we will suspend the planned exploration of two locations off the coast of Alaska. Second, we will cancel the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia. Third, we will continue the existing moratorium and suspend the issuance of new permits to drill new deepwater wells for six months. And four, we will suspend action on 33 deepwater exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico.
The President also made the broader point that this tragedy should serve as a “wake-up call” for Americans that our dependence on oil is not sustainable. Focusing our resources on renewable energy will not only protect our environment, but “it will it will create a new, homegrown, American industry that can lead to countless new businesses and new jobs.”
President Obama is scheduled to make his second trip to the Gulf Coast region tomorrow.
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11 Responses
Mr President, you are lying to the people. You stayed FAR away from this until you had to say something — for political reasons. We are wondering if it was possibly because of THE MILLION DOLLARS contributed to your campaign by BP – MORE THAN TO ANY OTHER CANDIDATE!! You didnt say a word about it for the first 8 days of the leak, in fact you hardly dealt with it at all until last week when Democratic stalwarts Chris Matthews and James Carville separately criticized your response, or lack thereof. Just the other day, after about 35 days of this, you are quoted as telling your staff to just “Plug the @##%$ hole!”
Perhaps you will tell us the truth about why you really didnt make the boons available for BP and that was because you were gonna stick it to Gov Jindal for not taking any of your porkulus money? Just admit it already. On the other hand we know the way Chicago politics operates. You just brought it to DC.
You are suspending drilling … for what reason?? Based on that non-logic of yours we should have stopped flying airplanes and stopped driving ages ago. Yes, there was an accident but accidents happen. We learn from them (some of us do) and we continue on with life. Perhaps the biggest problem here was that people on your side of the political spectrum FORCE us to drill that far out and that DEEP!? This was the LEFTIST doing! The envirowakkos put so many restrictions in place for no reason! There are many countries drilling in the Gulf – such as your friends China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Mexico, etc., are all drilling closer to land – even OUR land – without any problem.
We know you have no problem with very high gas prices – you said so during your campaign – but the rest of us heathens do have a problem with it. When gas prices go up, the price of EVERYTHING goes up, including food and anything else necessary. Most of us saw when gas hit $4 a gallon just about everything slowed down. We cannot afford this!
Finally Sir, what are you hiding with what you know about the Sestack situation. We know he was offered a job from someone in your regime if he backed out of the race against Arlen Spector. I am waiting for the manure to hit the fan on that one sir, because something like that falls under “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” something which is never fun for any president. Your administration is making the Nixon administration look like child’s play. I just hope when the fan expression happens, that the country is able to quickly rebound from you. I am sure the rabble-rousers like Rev Jesse and Rev Al have plans for that day too. It wont be good day for the country but it will IYH lead to better days, that’s for sure.
At about 49:50 (in the video), when BOH said, “Now let me make one broader point about energy…” did POTUS pause to allow his tech guys to turn on TOTUS and put on the screen all about oil drilling?
Its amazing how everyone on this site is so anti-Obama. He has done nothing wrong to deserve the rage that people vent at him. You all have issues. Here is “Mark Levine” spewing hatred at the leader of the free world without one iota of rationality behind it.
3, You are a lost cause. How anyone cannot ‘get it’ by now is amazing. Please tell me what flavor the kool-aid is.
3,
Were you of the same opinion when President Bush was in office and he got vilified for not much of a reason? Granted he wasn’t as fiscally Conservative as most of us would have liked.
You claim I have no ‘iota of rationality’ behind my points, yet you are completely incorrect. In fact I would say, derech ha’teva, there is nothing rational about how this ManChild with ZERO experience in the real world got elected as president. The mainstream media was so busy falling over each and every word he read off his personal teleprompter along with that awful reverb he has when he speaks, they FAILED to to their job & vet him out.
Alas, you too fell for him, his looks, his ability to read the teleprompter, and his empty suit. The good news is that a nice amount of voters ‘got it’ & will do whatever possible to get the political wave going the other way in 2010 & again in 2012. I think enough people ‘get’ what happens when they don’t pay attention in elections enough not to let it happen again.
One more thing Mrs McFrumerson, please spell my name correctly — LEVIN.
4 and 5
I was equally unimpressed with the “Bush bashing” that went on. But that is not the point. You still have not given ONE reason to hate Obama and call him names. Obama has zero experience in the real world? Really? Nobody vetted Obama? Are you joking?
What is clear, is that you, Marc Levine, have completely gotten in line with the “movement to hate Obama” put forth by the right wing, ultra conservative, “Jewish” media.
Please give it some thought. And when you do, if you feel a certain aching in your head, that is because you are using your own brain to form an opinion for the first time in a while. Dont feel bad, I too used to tow the line of whomever was rambling at that moment as well, but then I had my Bat Mitzvah.
Mark:
When did BP contribute “A MILLION DOLLARS” to Obama’s campaign? According to http://www.opensecrets.org, [http://tinyurl.com/296xloz] Obama received $71,051 in campaign contributions from BP, which, while a substantial amount, is not quite a million.
Is it possible you’re talking about the amount that BP has contributed to Obama throughout his political career? Well, then we’re talking. It looks like Obama has received a total of $77,051 from BP over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records. [Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html#ixzz0pFE39pLh%5D Again, that’s quite a lot. But it’s about $922,949 less than your quoted figure of “A MILLION DOLLARS.”
For what it’s worth, it looks as though, overall, BP has contributed much more to Republican candidates than Democratic ones [http://tinyurl.com/2w42bqr].
I’m not saying I approve of Obama’s response to this catastrophe, but please, if you’re going to a participate in a conversation about this, you should at least get the facts that you’re basing your wild conspiracy theories and criticisms on straight.
Also, Mark, I’m not sure your statement that Obama “didn’t say a word for the first 8 days” is totally accurate. It looks like he’s quoted as calling the spill a “number one priority” as early as April 23, two days after the spill.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8638938.stm
Where are you getting your information from, exactly?
6,
Gimme a break and get off the kool-aid!
What experience did he have? 100 days in the senate? a few years in state govt voting “present” because his teleprompter or Bill Ayers puppet strings didnt tell him what to do?
which busineess did he run? what job did he have in the private sector? Sorry, I forgot, he was a community aggitating rabble rouser and then he was their laywer.
had he been vetted by the far left instead of the folks at NBC/MessNBC having thrills running up their legs, you people out there would have known that he was really a socailist and nothing more than an empty suit. But since you werent paying attention to those of us telling you that and elections have consequences, we are stuck with Obama for another 969 days.
The question will be how long will it take us to recover from his mess, keeping in mind it took almost the entire 80’s to recuperate from ObamaLite aka Jimmy Carter.
some_jew,
Thank you for pointing out what George Soros ym’sh funded sites have to say. I’ll stick to sites where they report and I decide.
mark,
I don’t, expect you to respond to this, but here is a link to a FoxNews.com article citing the same figure. I don’t think Soros has gotten to them yet.
http://tinyurl.com/234br9g
The source for BP’s contributions to the Obama campaign is opensecrets.org, which is a nonpartisan site. The figure was quoted in a Politico.com article. The Politico.com article was cited by Sarah Palin, who was subsequently cited by FoxNews.
I ask again, what are your sources? I’m beginning to think you don’t have any.
I choose not to respond to any of your other post, as it really has nothing to do with this conversation.