Is Obama's Offshore Drilling Policy to Blame for Gulf Oil Spill?

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Oh yes indeed Mr Farrell!. Since Obama took office and started the policy, BP set up the rig, started drilling and...bingo. You are so astute!

robert Zeller of MA 4:28AM May 15, 2010

but I think the jobs of the gulf fishermen and those who sell or cook their take should have precedence. Drilling is not failsafe, and BP should have been much more prepared to deal with this accident. What is needed now is a full scale defense of the shores, immediate monetary assistance to those who already cannot do their job.

I think that all three possible responsible groups should be told that they are ALL responsible to stop and clean up the spill. The investigation as to who is financially liable can come later.

Stop the spill.

Clean it up.

dooner of CA 9:34PM May 14, 2010

CONGRESS AND OBAMA ARE SLOWING THE PROGRESS OF AFFECTIVELY RESOLVING THE SITUATION. LET THE SCIENTISTS AND QUALIFIED INDIVIDUALS HANDLE THE SITUATION. THEN CONGRESS AND OUR "president" CAN POINT FINGERS AND TRY TO BLAME WHOEVER. PEOPLE WHO THINK OFFSHORE DRILLING IS NOT SAFE ENOUGH OR REASONABLE WOULD CRY THE FIRST TIME GAS PRICES WENT BACK TO THE WAY THEY WERE A COUPLE YEARS AGO. AS IF ENOUGH PEOPLE HAVENT LOST THEIR JOBS STOPPING DRILLING IN THE GULF WOULD RESULT IN TENS IF NOT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS LOST. SO LET BP AND WHOEVER DO THEIR JOB AND GET OF THEIR BACKS.

LANCE of LA 9:23PM May 14, 2010

We stand by helplessly as BP tries one after another improvised attempt to stop it. Is this really the best we can do?

Do we really have so little understanding of the environment 1 mile down? How can we pretend that drilling at that depth is a safe and reasonable thing to do?

How can we even consider offshore drilling? What about conservation?

Jon Randall of CA 9:00PM May 14, 2010

News I received was that BP was allowed to REGULATE ITSELF on this project. It is also fully covered by insurance. I recall years ago when oil offshore of California was supposed to give a large part of profits to the State's public schools. The lesson here is surely that the first need is to move at once, more vigorously, to establish power from all renewable and clean sources.

aura dawn veirs of CA 3:26PM May 14, 2010

Who needs any stinking permits when BP is giving hundreds of thousands to the Obama administration.

Bob of MI 2:31PM May 14, 2010

I have studied US Presidential history at length and have yet to find a President that would stand by idly as Obama has while millions of gallons of oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico. As a lot of NYC papers have pointed out Mr. Obama was at a fundraiser last night even as the crisis worsened. The environmental and economic cost of this oil spill will be staggering and yet he stands by and does nothing. This will be a defining moment for him and America may finally wake up to the fact that he is not a man who likes to take responsibilty when it matters. Mr. Bush took a lot of flak for the Federal portion of the Katrina response yet Mr. Obama can seemingly do nothing but point fingers for the BP spill. Quite a contrast in leadership style and it shows a clear lack of maturity on the part of Mr. Obama.

Raul of NY 2:26PM May 14, 2010

The only way you can implicate the policy in this one, is to acknowledge that the Chinese are threatened by drilling in the Gulf, where they are also drilling, and therefore sabotaged the rig.

d of PA 1:35PM May 14, 2010

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John A. Farrell

John A. Farrell

John Aloysius Farrell is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report. An award-winning Washington reporter, he has written for The Boston Globe and The Denver Post and is the author of Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century and an upcoming biography of the great American defense attorney, Clarence Darrow.

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