Today was a special event. Using the “top fill” method, the leaking blowout preventer in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was reported to be finally closed off just hours before the President’s scheduled press conference. Well, almost. As it turns out the reports of success are extremely premature and while the flow appears to have slowed somewhat, the procedure is far from over and the results are even further from guaranteed.
The estimates of the oil gushing from the deep water well has steadily risen since the April 20th accident which claimed the lives of eleven BP employees and is now estimated to have leaked up to a million gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. With the amount of oil released equaling anywhere from twenty to thirty times the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez accident of 1989, this disaster represents the worst petroleum spill in US history and questions are now being raised as to whether it also represents the worst Federal disaster response in our history as well.
Even though this was President Obama’s first regular Press conference in three-hundred and eight days, the oil spill and the efforts to contain it sidelined many of the expected questions and consumed ninety-five percent of his one hour appearance. Continuing his administration’s favorite line, Obama maintained that while mistakes were made the Federal government was on top of the situation from day one. Unfortunately, for that to be true, one would have to count the Coast Guard team that rescued workers from the platform and performed the search for the eleven men that had lost their lives in the early hours of the disaster.
The first Oval Office meeting on the platform explosion occurred on April 22nd, two days after the first reports came in. While the Obama administration already knew about the deficiencies in the MMS (Federal Minerals Management Service) as well as the dangerously cozy relationships between MMS employees and the oil companies they were charged with overseeing, the government opted to rely heavily on surveys and reports assembled by BP to assess the scope of the damage and the potential for environmental impact. This reliance would prove disastrous as the estimates of the oil escaping the damage blowout preventer valve began to rise with each passing day.
MMS chief, Elizabeth Birnbaum, reportedly resigned this morning but insiders speaking under terms of anonymity claim she was ousted to satisfy critics of the MMS oversight of American oil producers. Of course Birnbaum couldn’t leave without taking a perfunctory swipe at the Bush administration by saying that she hopes the reforms that Interior Secretary Ken Salizar is implementing will resolve the flaws in the system she “inherited”. Inherit is one of those words that is curiously misused when it is applied to politics. You can inherit blonde hair and green eyes but can you inherit your grandfather’s fifth grade education? No; of course not. You have complete control over the course and direction of your life because you have personal command of all of those choices.
Ms. Birnbaum was the Director of the MMS, not a third level supervisor without discretion or autonomy. She assumed that position in July of 2009 with a report in hand that clearly described the scandalous behavior that had become part of the department’s culture over the years and it was her duty and responsibility to address those failings. The report detailing the improprieties and criminal acts rampant within the MMS was issued in September of 2008 leaving the former MMS director scant little time to address those issues before the election of Barack Obama. The lack of scrutiny given to the MMS was certainly a failure of the Bush administration but the tales of MMS mismanagement goes back beyond 1997 and well into the Clinton Administration as well. When she assumed control of the MMS, Birnbaum had the benefit of a report that gave her a clear map of those failings and she should have acted immediately on the information it contained; information that the Bush and Clinton administrations did not possess at the time. She did not act on that report so if she inherited anything, perhaps it was a case of congenital procrastination.
Then again, why should we expect Burnbaum to accept responsibility when the hallmark of the Obama administration is the pointing of fingers at the previous President? It doesn’t matter that this administration is eighteen months old now or that the problems that Obama claims to have inherited were the ones his campaign said he had a clear plan to correct. Today Barack Obama stood before the Press Corp and boldly accepted the responsibility for not moving fast enough to fix all the broken things that Bush left him. Yeah, that figures. We will probably be listening to the same old trash about the mess that Obama inherited as we approach the November 2012 election too.
What Obama didn’t inherit from Bush was the growing perception among Americans that he is focused on an ideological agenda and as long as the things he feels are important remain undone, the economy, the environment and the social, not to mention racial cohesiveness of the nation will be swept to the side and let for another day. Of course, our Campaigner in Chief feels that perception is a terrible mischaracterization of his efforts. After all, his administration was on this oil spill from day one! I saw it myself as he took to the golf course and basketball court to show how the hole in ocean floor could be easily plugged if the right size ball were only used. Then there was that stop for wings and beer that was all over television….maybe we could apply the same artery clogging fats used to fry the wings to clog the well shut too. Finally, he went on four trips to raise campaign funds for Barbara Boxer but while he was there, he did speak about the oil spill possibly in the hopes that one of those wealthy Democrats in attendance might have a good idea that BP hadn’t thought of.
The bare facts are that the national contingency plans that were automatically activated on the first day of the incident were required by existing law and were not the result of direct action from the Obama administration. Despite administration pledges for full support and available resources, it was a full nine days before Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano announced the incident was a spill of national significance, ten days before Secretary of Defense Robert Gates activated the Louisiana National Guard and the Justice Department sent a team of lawyers to monitor the spill (yeah, that one confused me too) not to mention it was a full twelve days came and went after the initial explosion before President Obama made his first inspection of the area. Try as you may, you just can’t blame Bush for that, now can you?
Paul
The estimates of the oil gushing from the deep water well has steadily risen since the April 20th accident which claimed the lives of eleven BP employees and is now estimated to have leaked up to a million gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. With the amount of oil released equaling anywhere from twenty to thirty times the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez accident of 1989, this disaster represents the worst petroleum spill in US history and questions are now being raised as to whether it also represents the worst Federal disaster response in our history as well.
Even though this was President Obama’s first regular Press conference in three-hundred and eight days, the oil spill and the efforts to contain it sidelined many of the expected questions and consumed ninety-five percent of his one hour appearance. Continuing his administration’s favorite line, Obama maintained that while mistakes were made the Federal government was on top of the situation from day one. Unfortunately, for that to be true, one would have to count the Coast Guard team that rescued workers from the platform and performed the search for the eleven men that had lost their lives in the early hours of the disaster.
The first Oval Office meeting on the platform explosion occurred on April 22nd, two days after the first reports came in. While the Obama administration already knew about the deficiencies in the MMS (Federal Minerals Management Service) as well as the dangerously cozy relationships between MMS employees and the oil companies they were charged with overseeing, the government opted to rely heavily on surveys and reports assembled by BP to assess the scope of the damage and the potential for environmental impact. This reliance would prove disastrous as the estimates of the oil escaping the damage blowout preventer valve began to rise with each passing day.
MMS chief, Elizabeth Birnbaum, reportedly resigned this morning but insiders speaking under terms of anonymity claim she was ousted to satisfy critics of the MMS oversight of American oil producers. Of course Birnbaum couldn’t leave without taking a perfunctory swipe at the Bush administration by saying that she hopes the reforms that Interior Secretary Ken Salizar is implementing will resolve the flaws in the system she “inherited”. Inherit is one of those words that is curiously misused when it is applied to politics. You can inherit blonde hair and green eyes but can you inherit your grandfather’s fifth grade education? No; of course not. You have complete control over the course and direction of your life because you have personal command of all of those choices.
Ms. Birnbaum was the Director of the MMS, not a third level supervisor without discretion or autonomy. She assumed that position in July of 2009 with a report in hand that clearly described the scandalous behavior that had become part of the department’s culture over the years and it was her duty and responsibility to address those failings. The report detailing the improprieties and criminal acts rampant within the MMS was issued in September of 2008 leaving the former MMS director scant little time to address those issues before the election of Barack Obama. The lack of scrutiny given to the MMS was certainly a failure of the Bush administration but the tales of MMS mismanagement goes back beyond 1997 and well into the Clinton Administration as well. When she assumed control of the MMS, Birnbaum had the benefit of a report that gave her a clear map of those failings and she should have acted immediately on the information it contained; information that the Bush and Clinton administrations did not possess at the time. She did not act on that report so if she inherited anything, perhaps it was a case of congenital procrastination.
Then again, why should we expect Burnbaum to accept responsibility when the hallmark of the Obama administration is the pointing of fingers at the previous President? It doesn’t matter that this administration is eighteen months old now or that the problems that Obama claims to have inherited were the ones his campaign said he had a clear plan to correct. Today Barack Obama stood before the Press Corp and boldly accepted the responsibility for not moving fast enough to fix all the broken things that Bush left him. Yeah, that figures. We will probably be listening to the same old trash about the mess that Obama inherited as we approach the November 2012 election too.
What Obama didn’t inherit from Bush was the growing perception among Americans that he is focused on an ideological agenda and as long as the things he feels are important remain undone, the economy, the environment and the social, not to mention racial cohesiveness of the nation will be swept to the side and let for another day. Of course, our Campaigner in Chief feels that perception is a terrible mischaracterization of his efforts. After all, his administration was on this oil spill from day one! I saw it myself as he took to the golf course and basketball court to show how the hole in ocean floor could be easily plugged if the right size ball were only used. Then there was that stop for wings and beer that was all over television….maybe we could apply the same artery clogging fats used to fry the wings to clog the well shut too. Finally, he went on four trips to raise campaign funds for Barbara Boxer but while he was there, he did speak about the oil spill possibly in the hopes that one of those wealthy Democrats in attendance might have a good idea that BP hadn’t thought of.
The bare facts are that the national contingency plans that were automatically activated on the first day of the incident were required by existing law and were not the result of direct action from the Obama administration. Despite administration pledges for full support and available resources, it was a full nine days before Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano announced the incident was a spill of national significance, ten days before Secretary of Defense Robert Gates activated the Louisiana National Guard and the Justice Department sent a team of lawyers to monitor the spill (yeah, that one confused me too) not to mention it was a full twelve days came and went after the initial explosion before President Obama made his first inspection of the area. Try as you may, you just can’t blame Bush for that, now can you?
Paul
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