With pressure mounting on Washington to hold BP accountable for the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, politicians and Obama administration officials are ramping up the tough talk and, in the case of one senator, a little name calling.
“In my mind, BP no longer stands for British Petroleum. It stands for Beyond Patience,” said Senator Dick Durbin.
The Illinois Democrat was part of a bi-partisan Senate delegation that toured the Louisiana coast with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
“We will keep our boot on their neck until the job gets done,” Salazar said.
The metaphor seems to suggest the interior secretary is resigned to an uneasy, but permanent, partnership with BP in the oil spill cleanup — contrasting with his comment over the weekend:
“If we find that they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ll push them out of the way appropriately.”
At a Monday White House briefing, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said, “To push BP out of the way would raise a question: To replace them with what?”
Allen acknowledged the federal government lacks BP’s expertise and deep sea equipment to handle an oil spill 5,000 feet below the surface.
But a report today from the Associated Press is raising questions about BP’s track record in handling massive spills. According to the AP, BP led the Alaska oil industry consortium responsible for handling the failed initial containment efforts during the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
Visiting oil-contaminated Fourchon Beach, BP’s chief executive officer acknowledged he had underestimated the environmental impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
“I’m as devastated as you are by what I’ve seen here today,” Tony Hayward told reporters. “We are going to do everything in our power to prevent any more oil from coming ashore and we will clean every last drop up.”