Posted on 05/01/2010 2:51:28 PM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
The Obama administration has publicly chastised BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher, yet a review of the response suggests it may be too simplistic to place all the blame for the unfolding environmental catastrophe on the oil company. The federal government also had opportunities to move more quickly, but did not do so ....
The Department of Homeland Security waited until Thursday to declare that the incident was “a spill of national significance,” and then set up a second command center in Mobile, Ala. The actions came only after the estimate of the size of the spill was increased fivefold to 5,000 barrels a day.
The delay meant that the Homeland Security Department waited until late this week to formally request a more robust response from the Department of Defense, with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledging even as late as Thursday afternoon that she did not know if the Defense Department even had equipment that might be helpful....
Officials initially seemed to underestimate the threat of a leak, just as BP did last year when it told the government such an event was highly unlikely. Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, the chief Coast Guard official in charge of the response, said on April 22, after the rig sank, that the oil that was on the surface appeared to be merely residual oil from the fire, though she said it was unclear what was going on underwater. The day after, officials said that it appeared the well’s blowout preventer had kicked in and that there did not seem to be any oil leaking from the well, though they cautioned it was not a guarantee.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Eco terror? Yeah, the thought’s occurred to me too.
Why would they act? It’s one of those crisis specials that Rahm was talking about.
It’s occurring to alot of people and several articles on it now on FR!
Thank you for the heads’ up, BLL. I’ve been hoping someone would write that.
To me, this ties neatly with Climategate.
OBAMA, THE ENVIOMENTALIST?
... yeah right.
Ditto that. There had to be an angle. For example, Soros is in the oil business now.
[Digging through my thug-0-crat hit list, linked to from profile ...]
Obama Helps Soros Drill For Oil In Brazil | Sweetness & Light
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-helps-soros-drill-oil-in-brazil
I’m also wondering if refineries will lose tanker supplies for a while? I can’t imagine oil tankers reaching refineries there right now. [Leftists already created a refinery bottleneck.]
He wasn’t in a classroom but last night he was as happy as a pig in Chicago while whining and dining at the White House Correspondence Dinner. I hope he enjoyed himself while folks on the Gulf Coast are uniting and working to correct this catastrophe without useless Government interference. At the dinner he probably joked to Michelle, “MMMMM... this seafood platter is delicious. Too bad those gun and bible toting rednecks in the South will be eating spaghetti O’s and spam from now till eternity.” HA HA HA! He’s just too funny.
Barack Obama flies in to meet BP chief over Deepwater Horizon oil spill
In New Orleans and Louisiana the response was confused and incompetent. State and local officials made one error after another. Mayor Nagin of New Orleans was particularly incompetent.
The MSM blamed Bush for all the problems in New Orleans and repeated it over and over again. It has now become a standard talking point that Katrina was Bush's fault.
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