![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/2010\/05\/img\/obamagulf_onpage.jpg\" "\\"National")
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Whoever is running the disaster response is going to have limited success and what appear to be very visible failures (see Will eco-disasters destroy Obama\u2019s legacy?<\/a> and 20-year veteran of the Coast Guard: \u201cWith a spill of this magnitude and complexity, there is no such thing as an effective response.\u201d<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n The <\/em>St. Petersburg Times argues, “Federal takeover of spill work isn’t the answer<\/a>.”\u00a0 But CAP’s <\/em> Tom Kenworthy<\/a> <\/span>and Brad Johnson<\/a><\/span> make a compelling case below that it is.\u00a0 What do you think?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>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. \u201cTo push BP out of the way, it would raise the question, to replace them with what?\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n The Obama administration\u2019s embattled and frustrated Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who on Sunday had threatened to do the pushing, recognized the sobering reality 24 hours later. \u201cThis administration has done everything we can possibly do to make sure that we push BP to stop the spill and to contain the impact,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cWe 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\u2019s surface to kill the well.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n BP\u2019s funding should come in the form of an escrow account that draws on BP\u2019s $100 billion<\/a> in capital reserves, without limit. The federal government should require BP to use its first quarter 2010 profits\u2014$5 billion<\/a>\u2014to 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.<\/p>\n 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….<\/p>\n 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\u2014money 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.<\/p>\n This is a repost<\/a> by Tom Kenworthy<\/a>,<\/span> Senior Fellow, and Brad Johnson<\/a>, <\/span>a Researcher and Blogger at the Center for American Progress.<\/em><\/p>\n For more information, see:<\/strong><\/p>\n Whoever is running the disaster response is going to have limited success and what appear to be very visible failures (see Will eco-disasters destroy Obama\u2019s legacy? and 20-year veteran of the Coast Guard: \u201cWith a spill of this magnitude and complexity, there is no such thing as an effective response.\u201d) The St. Petersburg Times argues, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-580999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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