Massive oil slick continues
Source: Agencies |
May 20, 2010, Thursday
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US scientists are anxiously awaiting signals about where a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico may be heading, while containment of the looming environmental catastrophe proves elusive.
Tar balls that floated ashore in the Florida Keys were not linked to the oil spill, the Coast Guard said yesterday, but that did little to soothe fears that a blown-out well gushing a mile underwater could spread damage along the coast from Louisiana to Florida.
Oil has been spewing since the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Louisiana coast on April 20, killing 11 workers. The rig sank two days later.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee addressed the spill at a hearing yesterday where leading Republicans including John Mica of Florida sought to pin blame on President Barack Obama's administration. He cited Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's acknowledgment on Tuesday that his agency could have more aggressively monitored the offshore drilling industry.
Outlining what he called the "Obama oil spill timeline," Mica said the administration failed to heed warnings about the need for more regulation and issued "a carte blanche recipe for disaster" in approving drilling by the Deepwater Horizon, leased by oil giant BP PLC, and several dozen other wells.
He also said the spill could have been contained more quickly if the Coast Guard and other agencies had a better plan.
"This went on and on," he said. "I'm not going to point fingers at BP, the private industry, when it's government's responsibility to set the standards."
Committee Chairman James Oberstar, a Democrat, took issue with the criticism, saying the drilling was approved by career officials early in the Obama administration.
"I think it's inflammatory to call it the Obama oil spill, and wrong," Oberstar said.
Also, government scientists were surveying the Gulf to determine if the oil had entered a current that could take it to Florida.
Tar balls that floated ashore in the Florida Keys were not linked to the oil spill, the Coast Guard said yesterday, but that did little to soothe fears that a blown-out well gushing a mile underwater could spread damage along the coast from Louisiana to Florida.
Oil has been spewing since the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Louisiana coast on April 20, killing 11 workers. The rig sank two days later.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee addressed the spill at a hearing yesterday where leading Republicans including John Mica of Florida sought to pin blame on President Barack Obama's administration. He cited Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's acknowledgment on Tuesday that his agency could have more aggressively monitored the offshore drilling industry.
Outlining what he called the "Obama oil spill timeline," Mica said the administration failed to heed warnings about the need for more regulation and issued "a carte blanche recipe for disaster" in approving drilling by the Deepwater Horizon, leased by oil giant BP PLC, and several dozen other wells.
He also said the spill could have been contained more quickly if the Coast Guard and other agencies had a better plan.
"This went on and on," he said. "I'm not going to point fingers at BP, the private industry, when it's government's responsibility to set the standards."
Committee Chairman James Oberstar, a Democrat, took issue with the criticism, saying the drilling was approved by career officials early in the Obama administration.
"I think it's inflammatory to call it the Obama oil spill, and wrong," Oberstar said.
Also, government scientists were surveying the Gulf to determine if the oil had entered a current that could take it to Florida.
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