In wake of Gulf spill, should this be the summer of energy reform?<\/a><\/p>\n Show how much you—and BP—care with a commemorative oil spill T-shirt<\/a><\/p>\n Matthews tells Obama to kill BP’s disaster capitalism<\/a><\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tby Agence France-Presse <\/p>\n
WASHINGTON
\n– Right-wing darling Sarah Palin accused President Barack Obama on Sunday of
\nbeing lax in his response to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and suggested this
\nwas because he is too close to Big Oil.\n<\/p>\n
The
\nformer vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor, who champions offshore
\ndrilling, criticized the media for not drawing the link between Obama and Big
\nOil and said if this spill had happened under former President George W. Bush
\nthe scrutiny would have been far tougher.\n<\/p>\n
“I
\ndon’t know why the question isn’t asked by the mainstream media and by others
\nif there’s any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and
\nhis administration and the support by the oil companies to the
\nadministration,” she told Fox News Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
More
\nthan $3.5 million has been given to candidates by BP over the last 20 years,
\nwith the largest single donation, $77,051, going to Obama, according to the
\nCenter for Responsive Politics.\n<\/p>\n
Palin
\nsuggested this close relationship explained why Obama was “taking so
\ndoggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and
\nthe potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico.”\n<\/p>\n
The
\nBP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers, and
\nsank two days later. Ever since, hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil,
\nperhaps even millions, have been spewing each day into the sea.\n<\/p>\n
The
\nresulting slick, now the size of a small country, threatens to leave Louisiana’s
\nfishing and coastal tourism industries in tatters, ruin pristine nature
\nreserves, and cause decades of harm to the ecology of fragile marshes that are
\na haven for rare wildlife and migratory birds.\n<\/p>\n
The
\nObama administration has been forced to defend its response to the disaster as
\nsome Republicans have sought to portray it as its Katrina, an allusion to
\nBush’s mishandling of the response to the hurricane that devastated Louisiana
\nin 2005.\n<\/p>\n
White
\nHouse spokesman Robert Gibbs mocked Palin’s suggestions that Obama was somehow
\nin bed with the big oil companies because of 2008 presidential campaign
\ncontributions.\n<\/p>\n
“Sarah
\nPalin was involved in that election, but I don’t think, apparently, was paying
\na whole lot of attention,” Gibbs said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”
\nprogram. “I’m almost sure that the oil companies don’t consider the Obama
\nadministration a huge ally. We proposed a windfall profits tax when they jacked
\ntheir oil prices up to charge for gasoline. My suggestion to Sarah Palin would
\nbe to get slightly more informed as to what’s going on in and around oil
\ndrilling in this country.”\n<\/p>\n
Earlier
\nthis month, Obama ratcheted up criticism of BP over the spills, betraying
\nfrustration with the company’s failure to stop the leak, and more recently
\nannounced a bipartisan presidential commission to probe the huge oil spill.\n<\/p>\n
Obama
\nhas also accused oil companies of enjoying a “cozy relationship” with
\nthe Minerals Management Service, the federal agency set up to monitor the
\nenergy sector, which was later broken up into three separate agencies. He
\nordered “top to bottom” reform of the agency after it was accused of
\nallowing BP and other oil companies to drill in the Gulf without first
\nobtaining required permits.\n<\/p>\n
“BP
\nwill pay for every bit of this,” Gibbs said Sunday. “We have to
\nfigure out and make sure that the relationship that is had with government and
\noil companies is not a cozy relationship as the president said.”\n<\/p>\n
He
\nalso dismissed analogies with Katrina, which still haunts U.S. politics and
\nprovides an easy comparison for the media when considering the longer-term
\nfallout that may plague Obama’s energy agenda for months or even years.\n<\/p>\n
“If
\nyou look back at what happened in Katrina, the government wasn’t there to
\nrespond to what was happening,” said Gibbs. “That quite frankly was
\nthe problem. I think the difference in this case is we were there immediately.
\nWe have been there ever since.”\n<\/p>\n
Palin,
\nwho quit the Alaska governorship after serving less than half of one term,
\nfamously promoted the slogan “Drill, baby, drill!” that rallied
\nsupporters while dismissing possible environmental impact of offshore drilling.
\nHer detractors switched the line to “Spill, baby, spill!”\n<\/p>\n
Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n In wake of Gulf spill, should this be the summer of energy reform?<\/a><\/p>\n Show how much you—and BP—care with a commemorative oil spill T-shirt<\/a><\/p>\n Matthews tells Obama to kill BP’s disaster capitalism<\/a><\/p>\n
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