US warns it may 'push BP aside' on Gulf oil clean-up

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: BBC

Oil firm BP may be "pushed out of the way" if it fails to perform in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster clean-up, a top US official has warned.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the British company had missed "deadline after deadline" in its efforts to seal a blown-out oil well.
***
"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," Mr Salazar told reporters after visiting BP's US headquarters.

Ken Salazar expresses doubt over BP's attempts at clearing up oil spill
The BBC's Madeleine Morris in Washington says Mr Salazar's comment is the strongest language yet used by a US official towards BP.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10145011.stm

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more at Reuters link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN2226640420100523

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Washington is frustrated and angry that BP Plc missed "deadline after deadline" in its efforts to seal the well more than a month after an oil rig explosion triggered the disaster.

"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading. We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed," Salazar said after visiting BP's U.S. headquarters in Houston on Sunday.

"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," he told reporters as the administration maintained its hard line.

Salazar's strong comments followed President Barack Obama's on Saturday, when he blamed the spill on "a breakdown of responsibility" at BP. The unfolding disaster has become a top priority on Obama's crowded domestic agenda.

[Catshrink]

1. Oooooo did he send a strongly worded letter?

:sarcasm:

[CLANG]

2. No, but he's damn well thinking about it...!!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

18. And I heard the the pens to get it done are on Special Order and are to be shipped

second day air!

[CLANG]

19. I think they sign these things in invisible ink

[goforit]

4. Salazar is a widdle tooooooo late......This administration has ended any re-election prospects!!!

[roguevalley]

12. NOW! NOW!NOW!NOW! DO IT NOW! GOD! ALL! MIGHTY!

If I put my boot up his ass do you suppose he will find some sense of FUCKING URGENCY SOMEWHERE!?!?!

RV, who endured the shitstorm of exxon valdez for all you who wish to bash my ass.

[msongs]

3. give straws to all the congresspersons and tell em to.... nt

[smirkymonkey]

26. Hey, don't leave out all the nice Oil executives!

n/t

[texastoast]

5. When? When? When?

What's it going to take to get bad enough to get something done?

[ShamelessHussy]

6. Yeah, if you PERPs continue to FAIL, we will have to come in and show you how it's done!

just let us know when it's appropriate, and your lawyers have finished the plan on how to pin all the blame on the U.S. tax payer, we will step right in there.

[liberal N proud]

7. Do IT already

[VAliberal]

8. nationalize all U.S. assets of BP

and fine, tax and sue the remaining portions of the company into oblivion to pay for the cost of cleanup, the lost jobs and lifestyles of folks on the Gulf coast and investments into clean alternative energy. F* BP.

[scentopine]

9. LOL! Maybe return their campaign contributions as a start...

if I dumped a quart of motor oil in the creek in my back yard, and the neighbor down stream caught me on video tape - I wonder how long it would take the government to remove me from managing the spill and haul my ass in jail?

[William Z. Foster]

10. I saw that

That is an admission that BP is in fact in control of the response to the catastrophe.

[47of74]

11. Don't hold your breath

[humbled_opinion]

13. DOH !!

You sound like a Bush Admin lackey talking about how if Mayor Nagin didn't start getting stuff done down there in NOLA they were gonna have to actually hold FEMA accountable.

The BP oil spill is quickly becoming Obama's Katrina. Its like he really doesn't even care, he deflected the responsibility back to BP and has been silent ever since.

There comes a time when our government must stand up and take serious action to solve a crisis the time has come and gone for this one, all that is left is for us to profoundly document this environmental catastrophe so that we can adequately explain it to our posterity and the world how badly we screwed this one up.

What I expected...

- Total takeover by Federal authorities.
- Amass all possible federal resources on the gulf cost.
- Stop the leak
- Clean it up
- Nationalize the Oil Industry
- Proclaim a goal of having America 100 percent off of oil in 10 years.
- Throw Trillions of Dollars into new tech
- Save the planet.

[Hugin]

16. Yes, this crisis is much more than "due-process", it's a question of sovereignty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided.

[FlaGatorJD]

14. So We got this kinda Global State of Emergency here Mr. President

Will you respectfully get off your ass and take over this nightmare?

I'm really waiting on "I got this", remember that? :shrug:

[watajob]

15. I know!

A round table discussion and make sure them damn oil execs have the most uncomfortable chairs in the room. That'll teach 'em!!!

Perhaps they should have considered this about 100 million gallons ago.

[annm4peace]

17. wow,, wait almost a month and then threaten to take over

How the Democrat Leadership has handled this makes me vote Green or Socialist party.

although Republicans are far worse the Democrats, this Gulf Disaster (which involves Haliburton) shows us the Democrats prefer Corporate interest over the environment and the working class.

Shameful.

[scentopine]

20. You know - this is a really strange thing, almost like good cop/bad cop

why would Obama play this out in the media, but still not know how much oil is leaking and has leaked?

This is just gets wierder and wierder. All this tough talk in public seems very, very odd. Normally these conversations are behind doors and then the general contractor is removed.

"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately,"

Don't they know by now whether they are doing the right thing or not?

"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading. We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed,"

What deadlines? We haven't heard about a single deadline and you are telling us this now because...?

How about this idea - FIRE BP starting 33 DAYS AGO! YOU DON"T PUT THE THIEF IN CHARGE OF THE ROBBERY INVESTIGATION!

Unless you are Goldman Sachs, of course.

[Hardrada]

21. There is a character like Obama in the movie "Alien" who

is always cool and calm under pressure but is never helpful while things worsen until Ripley finds out he is actually a robot. I get that eerie feeling that Obama is more android than human.

[Paper Roses]

22. Do it now, Mr. President. Send the bill to BP, not to us.

We, the taxpayers will be paying one way or another for this mess forever. The clean-up should be paid for by the greedy folks at BP.

Damn, I'm angry.

[humbled_opinion]

25. Bingo

The Administration takes us for fools. Did Obama just think he could stand up and say we are gonna punish you BP, you will pay, pay, pay.... We know that BP will pass any costs for this spill on to consumers the only way that we can be sure they pay is to close them down forever or take control of their operations.

and a month passes and nothing is getting done. It doesn't even matter anymore if Obama thought the feds had the resources to fix it in a month they should have figured it out. Incompetence is becoming the refelction in the mirrors of the White House.

Obama passes up another opportunity to really fix a problem and not just recite some lame edict that never really gets done i.e., close Gitmo, end the wars, Green energy jobs....

[krkaufman]

30. ... meaningful health care and financial reform, ....

I'll credit Obama for not taking the Bush approach and pouring gasoline onto the various fires, but he's fallen far short on actually solving the problems.

[humbled_opinion]

34. The healthcare reform that he passed is not meaningful

there is too much to be desired and he spent too much political capital to come away with such a pittance to what is really required. The public is clamouring to support a repeal, imagine the message of failure that will send if it actually comes to that.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

27. Republican Senator Murkowski wants you to pay for it $$$

As the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig continues to spill over 1 million gallons of oil into the Gulf every day, Republicans are demanding less regulation for companies like BP and Transocean while also looking for a taxpayer-funded bailout of BP.

After a month of oil spewing into the Gulf, the cost of cleaning up BP's mess is $542 million and counting. But a group of Republican senators led by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska want the company to only pay for about the first five days of the cleanup and put taxpayers on the hook for everything else.

It's a straight-up bailout for BP, and it's outrageous.

But we can stop it. Use this page to tell Murkowski and her Senate colleagues that it's time to end offshore drilling and focus on clean energy instead.
http://act.truemajorityaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=71

[ima_sinnic]

23. whatever. Now he's off to approve more permits, ignoring Obama's "moratorium"

I'm starting to agree with poster upthread that we got us a mighty fine robot in the Oval Office.

[Thor_MN]

24. So if Obama pushes BP aside, what then?

To the best of my knowledge, we don't have a Department of fixing leaking pipes under a MILE OF FUCKING WATER. I'm guessing more than half the people whinning haven't walked a mile in years much less have any comprehension what a mile of water means.

It's all well and good to sit there and call for BP to be removed and demand action, but unless you have the skills of holding your breath and avoiding getting crushed like a grape run over by a dump truck, maybe STFU? I'm pretty sure Obama doesn't have a ROV capable of fixing the problem gathering dust in a White House garage. The only government agency that knows anything about being under water is the Navy, and they know shit all about drilling. The leak would be easier to get to if it were on the moon.

The only people with the equipment and experience to deal with this are the oil industry. If they can not fix it, there really isn't anyone else. They should have been required to have equipment to deal with this exact problem before being allowed to drill, but they were allowed to write all the requirements by some past administration. This is what industry self regulation looks like. So if you want to bitch, do it about regulation, there isn't anyone with a magic wand to fix the mess.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

28. yes

expertise in government agencies for deep sea work is limited but our military is there trying to do something. Bringing more foreign experts may be a solution but they may know either?

[Nihil]

29. Hush your mouth! Bringing facts to a perfectly normal DU whinge-fest!

> To the best of my knowledge, we don't have a Department of fixing
> leaking pipes under a MILE OF FUCKING WATER.
> ...
> The only people with the equipment and experience to deal with this
> are the oil industry. If they can not fix it, there really isn't anyone else.

Didn't you get the memo?

It's got nothing to do with the depth of water or the pressure of the
fluid outflow: it's just all BPs fault for being so determined to operate
within the lax US regulations to extract this stuff that no DUer ever
uses or needs and if only good old southern know-how was given free rein,
it would have been sorted out three weeks ago.

Now you go upsetting them by saying that there's no magic wand ...

:evilgrin:

[donco6]

35. Better let Salazar know all this.

Because he's the one saying it.

Or did he just get off message?

[defendandprotect]

31. They've moved too slowly on this -- wake up time!

[yurbud]

32. two ways BP should be involved in clean up: execs cleaning beaches under police supervision and

paying for the damages.

That's it.

[Hardrada]

36. Exactly.

[yurbud]

37. and this is what really happened:

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0525/bp-ceo-media-oilcoated-beach/

[mvd]

33. Yes! That's the kind of thing I'm looking for

Also heard the EPA is going to be harder on them. K&R