by Brad Johnson.
This post is co-authored by Tom
Kenworthy.
There are obvious limits to how much control the federal government
can exert over the frantic and so far hapless effort to stem the
catastrophic oil eruption that threatens the entire Gulf of Mexico with
ecological devastation. As Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said
Monday, the government does not have the equipment or technical
expertise to simply shove aside BP and its industry partners a month
after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig off the coast of
Louisiana. “To push BP out of the way, it would raise the question, to
replace them with what?” Allen said.
The Obama administration’s embattled and frustrated Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar, who on Sunday had threatened to do the pushing,
recognized the sobering reality 24 hours later. “This administration has
done everything we can possibly do to make sure that we push BP to stop
the spill and to contain the impact,” Salazar said. “We have also been
very clear that there are areas where BP and the private sector are the
ones who must continue to lead the efforts with government oversight,
such as the deployment of private sector technology 5,000 feet below the
ocean’s surface to kill the well.”
But if government has little choice but to keep the perpetrator on
the job at the immediate crime scene, it does have a choice when it
comes to operations beyond the urgent task of quelling the erupting
well. BP will necessarily remain in charge of plugging the hole; but the
federal and state governments in the gulf must take greater charge of
containing the onshore ecological impacts.
This requires a greater mobilization than exists today, and
Washington needs to send the message that it is in full command of the
disaster response with the following actions:
One highly visible leader at the White House should lead the
command and coordination at the cabinet level between the Department
of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the
Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the Department of Energy, the EPA, the Department of
Justice, the White House Office of Energy and Climate Policy, the White
House Office of Science and Technology, and the Department of Defense.
Two excellent choices for this role would be Vice President Joe Biden or
energy advisor Carol Browner. This leader should also work directly
with the affected states’ governors.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be in charge of
onshore coastal recovery and disaster response, assisted by the Army
Corps of Engineers. The National
Guard should be fully deployed under the control of each state’s
governor, with Army units if necessary. The EPA, NOAA, and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service should exercise relevant oversight. And any environmental
and disaster response contractors working for BP should instead
work directly for the federal government.
The federal government should clearly be in charge of
surface-water recovery and maritime disaster response. The Vessels
of Opportunity and other maritime contractors now working for BP
should be under contract with the federal government, including research
vessels. The Coast Guard with the EPA, NOAA, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service oversight should manage dispersant
use for cleanup.
The Environmental Protection Agency should immediately bar
BP from new federal contracts-including drilling in federally
controlled oil fields-because of its repeated environmental crimes.
The State Department should continue to reach out to other
nations that have experience with disastrous oil spills to see if
assistance and ideas are available. This should be a
government-to-government effort, not one undertaken by private
companies.
Claims for damages and lost revenues should be put under the
authority of the U.S. Coast Guard
National Pollution Funds Center. The scope of this disaster far
exceeds the NPFC’s traditional resources, and other federal, state, and
local claims processing resources must therefore be brought to bear,
particularly from the Coast Guard’s sister agency FEMA.
The EPA, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service,
and other law enforcement branches of the federal, state, and local
government should exercise subpoena authority to seize
or monitor relevant communications and data collection, and assets
if necessary.
The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
should begin a health-monitoring program for the most at risk
populations so there is a baseline from which to measure health
complications from the spill and cleanup.
Federal agencies, not BP, should handle spill response hotlines
for volunteers, technology
ideas, affected wildlife, and others. Full call records need to be
logged with incident reports and technology ideas presented publicly on
dynamic websites.
BP is required as the responsible party for this apocalyptic disaster
to provide full and instant funding for the response by the federal,
state, and local governments and their contractors. BP personnel and
equipment being used for disaster response in the Gulf should be put
under governmental control during the crisis.
BP’s funding should come in the form of an escrow account that draws
on BP’s $100
billion in capital reserves, without limit. The federal government
should require BP to use its first quarter 2010 profits—$5
billion—to establish the escrow account. Congress needs to pass the
Big Oil Liability Bailout Prevention Act, S. 3305, to lift the
liability limit to $10 billion.
The Center for American Progress also supports a full moratorium on
new leases or new drilling for all companies until the commission issues
its report and recommendations. The Department of Interior has approved
at least 17 new
permits and 19 environmental waivers since the Deepwater Horizon rig
explosion.
Congress and the administration must meanwhile take further steps to
end our dependence on big oil. The administration should beef up federal
research and development efforts into how to prevent oil spills and
better contain them if they occur. The federal government should
establish additional protection for continental shelf areas beyond just
the three miles states can control. Congress should cut tax loopholes
and other handouts to big oil companies, which would save $45 billion
over 10 years—money that can be spent on investing in a clean energy
economy instead. And clean energy legislation that caps the oil and coal
pollution that is heating the atmosphere and acidifying the oceans is
long overdue.
Related Links:
Obama’s finally connecting the Gulf spill and clean energy. Champagne time?
How would you stop the Gulf oil leak?
Will Obama admin allow Shell Oil to do to Arctic waters what BP did to the Gulf?
