From Benintn's Diary:
One easy way to see what the US government is doing to coordinate its response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is by looking at the Joint Information Center Twitter account. For those who are so busy complaining about the lack of responsiveness, it might be helpful to see what is actually being done and the number of coordinated federal, state, and local responses in coordination with businesses, media, and residents of the area.
He goes on to provide the twitter feed for just the last 24 hours. It shows how many have been sent down to the Gulf Coast and pictures of the gusher itself.
Things like this:
Sec. Salazar & Sec. Napolitano to lead bipartisan Senate delegation to LA to inspect response to the BP #oilspill Press Release .
This press release names Kendra Barkoff (DOI), (202) 208-6416 and Clark Stevens (DHS), (202) 282-8010 as the points of contact for the information.
WASHINGTON—At the direction of the President, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will visit Louisiana on Monday to inspect the ongoing response to the BP oil spill, accompanied by a bipartisan Senate delegation.
Secretary Salazar, Secretary Napolitano and the Senate delegation will conduct a flyover of the affected areas; discuss the latest response efforts in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast with federal officials leading the effort as well as BP representatives; and meet with local community and industry leaders.
The Senate delegation accompanying Secretary Salazar and Secretary Napolitano will include: Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Senator David Vitter (R-LA).
He goes on to say this about this press release:
Note that Vitter and Landrieu will make the trip to represent Louisiana, which is most adversely affected. But I'm also seeing that we've got a 4:2 ratio of Dems to Republicans in this bipartisan group, with Durbin, Bingaman, and Whitehouse triple-teaming Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Durbin's in the home state of BP (formerly Amoco) and I can remember him giving Amoco a hard time a decade ago regarding price gouging of gas in Chicago. I trust that while Durbin is a pro-business guy, he's also going to be using his clout as a top member of the Judiciary Committee regarding the future of any regulation. (Remember that the Dems are battling Republican opposition to increasing the cap on damages from $75 million to somewhere in the billions of dollars - and Murkowski has been vocally opposed to raising the caps because of the potential negative impact on smaller oil and gas companies.) Bingaman, for his part, has been hard on BP execs in his role on the Energy committee. He chaired a meeting 2 weeks ago on the issue of the spill and cleanup efforts. And Whitehouse, for his part, serves on the Environment Committee as well as the Judiciary Committee and has a bully pulpit on the push for green energy legislation as well as corporate regulation.
I don't know if anyone on Daily Kos has written about this flyover, or the continuing push in the Senate to increase the caps on damages caused by this and future spills. But it seems evident to me that the Salazar-Napolitano trip is designed to pressure Murkowski into dropping her block on moving the bill forward.
That's just the first couple of things.. The entire diary is worth a read... Please check it out by clicking HERE.
I really don't see what else the President can do... He is and has been sending his best people to watch, listen and learn and to check what BP is actually doing.
Someone in the comment section said he should get on TeeVee and make a major speech about it... Not sure how that will show anything... He has spoken out a few times... but this person wanted a Prime Time Speech... That sure won't stop the gusher nor will it show anything to clean it up. So what would be the purpose of him doing such a thing.... You tell me.
Thanks all... I hope you read this and make note of the location where this is found. It is worth taking the time to look it all over.
6 comments:
Scarborough today said if President Obama was to speak out more forcefully and, like that commentor said, go on TV and make a major speech, then the problem with the oil disaster would "be his" and he would shoulder the blame. This is why the righties want him speaking out more. He is doing everything in his power I'm sure. My belief is the blame lies with BP.
There's a lot of rage and frustration because people think that this must be fixable. To me, when you're down to tossing golf balls into a gaping hole a mile deep in the ocean, the game is over. The relief wells are the only thing that will work, and they're at least 30-60 days out.
If I understand it correctly, the government can't legally do more than oversee BP without an act of Congress. That's a can of worms that won't speed things up and might well slow them down. And as the DailyKos blogger wrote, do we really want taxpayers to assume liability?
Others have suggested nationalizing BP, but nationalizing the American assets of foreign country to take over an operation in international waters has to be easier said than done, and sounds like an even bigger can of worms to me. And this is coming from someone who thinks the entire energy industry should be nationalized.
P.S. I'll say what Americans hate to admit: We're over a barrel. The response may not be perfect, but it's easy to criticize someone for not batting 1.000...
Thanks all for stopping by...
Sue, you are correct. I still maintain BP doesn't really want to stop this gusher, they want to harvest the oil. That's what they have tried to do since day one, find a way to slow it and still harvest.
It's all about the oil...lol
K, you are so right too... but as I said... they are still trying to find a way to harvest...that's the only thing that really makes sense at this point. And yes, it is easy to criticize when you aren't the one in charge.. The GOPers and the Drill, Baby, Drill nuts will make this look like the President is not doing enough.. no matter what he does.
Thanks for stopping Johnathan, and yes, Rome wasn't built in a day, but WE all want it done yesterday...lol No matter what it is.
I believe Obama is flying down there on Friday.
Yes, I heard that earlier, thanks Leslie.
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