Obama Still Believes in Off-Shore Oil Drilling
EmailABC News’ Yunji de Nies and Sunlen Miller report:
President Barack Obama says despite a massive oil spill in the Gulf, he still believes that responsible off-shore oil drilling is an important part of America’s energy security.
“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 from the Rose Garden, “ The local economies and livelihoods of the people of the Gulf Coast, as well as the ecology of the region, are at stake.”
The President said while British Petroleum is legally responsible to cover the cost of response and clean up, the federal government has been working to aid in the clean up since the day of the explosion.
Mr. Obama outlined the bevy of resources the government has deployed so far, including nearly 2000 federal response personnel, 300 response vessels and aircrafts and 217,000 feet of protective boom, with more on the way. The President says he expects reports today from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, along with his assistant for energy and climate change policy and the NOAA administrator to the Gulf Coast, all of whom are in the region. Mr. Obama has tasked Energy Secretary Ken Salazar to report back in 30 days with a fuller analysis of what went wrong and how to prevent future accidents.
“We’re going to make sure that any leases going forward have those safeguards,” the President said.
In the meantime, the government is also sending teams to inspect all existing deep-water rigs and platforms in the Gulf.
-Yunji de Nies and Sunlen Miller
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“This whole thing has been a daily strip tease. At first they thought it was just the diesel, then they said the well wasn’t leaking. It’s unfortunate they didn’t get the burning going right away. They could have gotten 90 percent of the oil before it spread.”
Google the name “Ron Gouget.” See what the former NOAA oil spill response coordinator says about the response “effort.”
This regime is pathetic in its disregard for actually managing things.
Posted by: Dave | April 30, 2010, 12:53 pm 12:53 pm
“This regime is pathetic in its disregard for actually managing things.”
Disagree – This situation is being “managed”. Obama and green cronies are interested in seeing this spill cause as much environmental damage as possible to provide cover for shutting down off-shore drilling.
Posted by: tjp612 | April 30, 2010, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
Our demand and strategic need for oil hasn’t changed a bit by this technological failure. There is risk in the world. The well SHOULD have been capped, but the required equipment did not work (and still isn’t working, despite prodding by robots). The cause of that failure must be identified and corrected on all existing rigs and additional safeguards probably required and installed (gasp – more regulation! That’ll cost poor oil companies more money!).
Long term, but not taking the ‘drilling is proven dangerous, shut it all down!’ path Obama is hurting his electoral chances. But it is the correct move for the nation. We need the oil to bridge over to domestic energy sources.
Posted by: jhw539 | April 30, 2010, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
“Obama and green cronies are interested in seeing this spill cause as much environmental damage as possible to provide cover for shutting down off-shore drilling.”
Exactly. He did everything else BUT address the problem for 8 days! And he also promised to put the coal industry out of business before he became President. It’s no coincidence.
Posted by: Mary | April 30, 2010, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
“Obama and green cronies are interested in seeing this spill cause as much environmental damage as possible to provide cover for shutting down off-shore drilling.”
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Must be an excellent opportunity as jhw points out to examine what went wrong and examine ALL other offshore rigs to see if the same problem exists.
As the damage from this disaster becomes more apparent, it will be very clear the coastal ecology will not take this type of gross abuse.
Posted by: tierra | April 30, 2010, 1:11 pm 1:11 pm
Exactly. He did everything else BUT address the problem for 8 days!
Mary | Apr 30, 2010 1:04:26 PM
The Coast Guard – which is part of the Federal Government – was onsite and working clean up issues on April 22th. The rig exploded April 20th. Where is your 8 days coming from? Did you miss all the news reports from just last week, or is this another case of a Republican pushing a Big Lie and hoping no one bothers to check (or remember the news reports of clean up starting LAST WEEK)? And as the scale of the leak has gotten worse, the scale of response has grown accordingly.
“HOUSTON
CHRONICLE
April 22, 2010, 11:29PM
…
With the fire doused and the rig submerged, the Coast Guard launched a sweeping effort to clean up petroleum spewed into the water and seal off a well at the sea floor that may have still been leaking oil.”
“CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
April 22
…
The Coast Guard is also reporting that it is assembling environmental cleanup crews. “We are looking at dispersant options, and we have planes and vessels on standby, should it be necessary,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Sue Kerver told the oil and gas industry newspaper Upstream. “
Posted by: jhw539 | April 30, 2010, 1:30 pm 1:30 pm
“Long term, but not taking the ‘drilling is proven dangerous, shut it all down!’ path Obama is hurting his electoral chances. But it is the correct move for the nation. We need the oil to bridge over to domestic energy sources. ”
jhw, I agree with your post, although I don’t think this position is hurting his re-election chances. We need independence from foreign oil, which is not the same as independence from oil (green energy will not power us into the future). So I think this a good position to hold.
As far as the spill and our government’s response, well, let’s just say that I don’t find fault with how this is being handled. We are doing what we can to help and the bill should go to BP.
Posted by: J.R. | April 30, 2010, 2:05 pm 2:05 pm
And where is Sarah Palin hiding?
no tweet or facebook response the disaster or loss of human life from the self proclaimed ENERGY (drill baby drill) specialist?
Posted by: watching | April 30, 2010, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
“Disagree – This situation is being “managed”. Obama and green cronies are interested in seeing this spill cause as much environmental damage as possible to provide cover for shutting down off-shore drilling.”
All the right wing has is paranoia.
Facts apparently have a liberal bias.
Posted by: Ryan C | April 30, 2010, 2:34 pm 2:34 pm
“As far as the spill and our government’s response, well, let’s just say that I don’t find fault with how this is being handled.”
From the US DOJ (4/30): “Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that he is dispatching a team of attorneys from multiple divisions within the Justice Department to New Orleans to meet with the U.S. Attorney and response teams and to monitor the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.”
As everyone knows, dispatching a large team of lawyers to a massive oil spill is the absolute best way of cleaning it up. Sheer genius.
Posted by: Mary | April 30, 2010, 3:24 pm 3:24 pm
“As everyone knows, dispatching a large team of lawyers to a massive oil spill is the absolute best way of cleaning it up. Sheer genius.”
Agreed, that is completely unnecessary. But they are doing other things. I would like to see how this gets treated in the press relative to the Katrina coverage vis a vis GWB.
Posted by: J.R. | April 30, 2010, 3:36 pm 3:36 pm
“I would like to see how this gets treated in the press relative to the Katrina coverage vis a vis GWB.”
I think you already know how this will be handled by the press…Coverage will be slanted to the degree Axelrod and company dictate.
Posted by: tjp612 | April 30, 2010, 3:43 pm 3:43 pm
“Disagree – This situation is being “managed”. Obama and green cronies are interested in seeing this spill cause as much environmental damage as possible to provide cover for shutting down off-shore drilling.”
All the right wing has is paranoia.
Facts apparently have a liberal bias.
Posted by: Ryan C | Apr 30, 2010 2:34:02 PM
____________________________________
Even the neighborhood cat is in on the conspiracy! Run for your lives!
Posted by: tierra | April 30, 2010, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
“As everyone knows, dispatching a large team of lawyers to a massive oil spill is the absolute best way of cleaning it up. Sheer genius.”
The DOJ is not involved in the cleanup
“”The British Petroleum oil spill has already cost lives and created a major environmental incident,” said Attorney General Holder. “The Justice Department stands ready to make available every resource at our disposal to vigorously enforce the laws that protect the people who work and reside near the Gulf, the wildlife, the environment and the American taxpayers.”
The right wing thinks so little of its base’s intelligence.
Posted by: Ryan C | April 30, 2010, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
“Even the neighborhood cat is in on the conspiracy! Run for your lives!”
Not Miss Precious Perfect!
I refuse to believe that!
Posted by: Ryan C | April 30, 2010, 4:57 pm 4:57 pm
Just wait til they catch the left eco-terrorists who caused the spill……..
Posted by: Joe White | April 30, 2010, 8:01 pm 8:01 pm
If Bush had been this slow on the uptake, John Stewart would have handcuffed himself to the Whitehouse gate.
What the heck is going on?
Posted by: welldirected | May 1, 2010, 2:09 am 2:09 am
I have also heard a rumor that David Axelrod is an escapee from an old German movie. We need not go into the topic of the movie.
It was not about oil – although the German did need it.
Posted by: welldirected | May 1, 2010, 2:12 am 2:12 am
I heard Obama was responsible for the freaky cold weather as of late. What’s up with that?
Posted by: SanityKills | May 1, 2010, 2:28 am 2:28 am
“The Justice Department stands ready to make available every resource at our disposal to vigorously enforce the laws that protect the people who work and reside near the Gulf, the wildlife, the environment and the American taxpayers.”
.
But enforcing existing immigration laws with every “available resource” to protect the people who work and reside in the Southern states, the wildlife, the environment, and the American taxpayer is not to be considered by this administration of political hacks.
Posted by: gk | May 1, 2010, 9:32 am 9:32 am
The right wing thinks so little of its base’s intelligence.
Posted by: Ryan C
—
This rightwinger is intelligent enough to know that obama isn’t paying lip service to drilling offshore because he wants to see it done. The man knows that when the Memorial Day price hikes show up some of the negative sentiment will rub off onto him and the party he just destroyed. When the independents he has left start paying $5:00 for gasoline they’re gonna want to hear something more than hot air and green windmills in Massachussetts!
Us stoopid ol republicans ain’t changin (any more than you and progressive mama) y’all’d be better off worryin bout dem independents. They have changed.
Posted by: smartlillena | May 1, 2010, 9:46 am 9:46 am
Apparently the reality that the renewable energies will be too small to meet the nation’s demand has forced Obama to take the position formerly taken by GOP, i.e. more nuclear power and offshore drilling for gas and oil.
Posted by: austin | May 1, 2010, 11:19 am 11:19 am
Ryan C wrote: “The right wing thinks so little of its base’s intelligence. ”
.
Who is intelligent enough to recognize that collecting 10 years of taxes to pay 6 years of benefits does not equal “deficit neutral” by any accounting standard? Then we find that the Department of HHS issues a report that … wait for this…. umm, err, uhh, the new health care takeover law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers. Who has been intelligent enough to recognize this fact all along and say so? And who has refused to recognize this?
Posted by: gk | May 1, 2010, 11:56 am 11:56 am
Who is intelligent enough to recognize that collecting 10 years of taxes to pay 6 years of benefits does not equal “deficit neutral” by any accounting standard?
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Better than what the Bush Republicans did – 6 years of extra spending with no increase in taxes = decades and decades of debt.
Oops – crashed economy – even worse.
Posted by: tierra | May 1, 2010, 9:29 pm 9:29 pm
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of April 21, 2010, the unemployment rate rose to 10.2%.
tierra, your obsession with Bush is tiresome. By the way offshore drilling was something supported by Bush; and here now, that the economy is struggling, Obama has to resort to conservative job creating strategies advocated by conservatives such as oil drilling and building nuclear power plants. Obama is coming to the grim realization that liberal legislation just doesn’t work to create jobs.
Posted by: EPU | May 1, 2010, 11:32 pm 11:32 pm
Democrats who whine and blame every problem solely on the lap of Bush dismissively and purposefully ignore that the Democrats have been controlling Congress and crafting budgets since 2006 when they won the Senate. You can’t say the Democrats didn’t have their hand in this. Congress has been in control by Democrats since 2006 and Obama didn’t become president until 2008. The problems Obama inherited were partly due to the Democrat Congress of 2006.
Posted by: EPU | May 1, 2010, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
05/05/2010
Obama biggest recipient of BP(British Petrooleum) cash
While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.
BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.
During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.
Posted by: call me Roy | May 5, 2010, 6:44 pm 6:44 pm
I’d like to know what the responsible parties are doing for the animals????
HOW MUCH MONEY has been spent on the recovery and transport of affected animals? They have to live with your mistakes, they have to suffer and deal, while you run to the bank and check on your bank accounts. If you had any freaken idea of what will happen to you in the afterlife you’d be on the beach right now massaging the whales and giving pelicans mouth to mouth, rubbing them clean. Don’t even get me started on Palin. I don’t know how she ever got a BA let alone the type of work she does
Posted by: Kay | May 24, 2010, 2:18 am 2:18 am