As the oil slick from a disastrous rig explosion menaced the Louisiana coastline and political fallout intensified, the White House promised to keep “our boot on the throat of BP.”
Increasingly sensitive to suggestions from critics that the BP oil spill was worsened by weak oversight an inadequate federal response, the administration is drawing clear distinctions between its role in the response and that of the energy giant.
“The responsible party will pay for this and that responsible party is BP,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Still, the encroaching disaster is putting Obama in a corner in several ways.
Having come out in March in favor of expanding offshore drilling, the president is now facing pressure from liberals and environmentalists to reinstate a ban on new exploration. A new ad from liberal group MoveOn.org urges Obama to reconsider the policy.
At the same time, the modest expansion of offshore drilling Obama had proposed was a central compromise aimed at winning the support of moderates for a climate bill, which now appears hopelessly scuttled.
“They took full advantage of their messaging on offshore drilling a month ago, and that in a sense has come back to get them,” said Frank Maisano, an energy policy expert at Bracewell and Giuliani.
Of the climate bill in the Senate, Maisano said the BP spill “literally blows it off the agenda.”
On a weekend visit to the Gulf Coast, Obama emphasized federal responsiveness, not energy policy.
“Every American affected by this spill should know this: Your government will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to stop this crisis,” Obama said.
The oil rig Deepwater Horizon, positioned about 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana, caught fire and exploded on April 20. A second explosion two days later sunk the massive rig, which soon began leaking oil and diesel into the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead.
“We will keep our — as [Interior] Secretary [Ken] Salazar said, our boot on the throat of BP to ensure that they’re doing all that is necessary while we do all that is humanly possible to deal with this incident,” Gibbs said. “Absolutely.”
So far, the oil giant is sticking with the White House script.
“We are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that’s what we intend to do,” BP PLc Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward told NBC’s “Today” show.
Unclear, however, is how closely BP will go along with a White House plan for fisherman and other industries harmed by the oil spill to get some kind of payout. The company has said it will pay “legitimate” claims; the administration is asking for clarification.
Hayward was In Washington Monday meeting with Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, among others.
Salazar warned over the weekend that the BP disaster could ultimately prove far worse than the worst oil spill on record — the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.
