OIL SPILL Gulf Kill Thirty-eight days after BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and killed eleven workers, fifteen to 40 million gallons of toxic crude have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil from the slick now equals the size of South Carolina and has soiled more than 100 miles of Louisiana's coastline. Fishermen working on the cleanup have "become ill after working long hours near waters fouled with oil and dispersant," reporting "nausea, dizziness, headaches and chest pains." The federal government is "going to bring every resource necessary to put a stop" to the catastrophe, President Obama said yesterday during a visit to a solar panel manufacturing facility in Fremont, CA. "We will not rest until this well is shut, the environment is repaired, and the cleanup is complete." There may be reason for hope on the first element. U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the top federal official overseeing the response, said this morning he is optimistic that the "top kill" -- the latest effort to shut down BP's blown out well -- is working. Unfortunately, the toxic sludge in Louisiana's fragile wetlands, the slick on the open ocean, and the toxic plumes of dispersed oil underwater are continuing to kill marine wildlife and birds at a terrifying clip. The ongoing investigations into the causes of the disaster are revealing new evidence of decisions to ignore on-site workers and instead take safety risks in order to save costs, and a top BP worker who was aboard the Deepwater Horizon has invoked the Fifth Amendment. Recognizing the national importance of forestalling yet more disasters, Obama today will ban new deepwater wells for six months, cancel exploratory drilling in Alaska, and cancel a "proposed lease sale off the Virginia coast."
IS BP TOO BIG TO CARE?: BP's attitude toward the Gulf catastrophe resembles the shrugs of Wall Street firms who caused the near collapse of the global economy. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles has expressed his optimism that both his company and the Gulf will "will fully recover," even though Prince William Sound has yet to "fully recover" 21 years after the Exxon Valdez spill. Likewise, BP CEO Tony Hayward -- who received a 40 percent pay raise last year to about $5.8 million -- said he believes the "environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest" because the Gulf of Mexico is a "very big ocean." BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said his company is a "big and important company for the US" and expects that BP will be able to "move on," although its "reputation will be tarnished." Financial analyst Tom Nelson believes BP's stock drop "is a fantastic opportunity to buy a very high quality long-term business on a very cheap rating." Center for American Progress senior fellow Joseph Romm called BP "the Goldman Sachs of big oil" because of its spotty safety record, insistence on voluntary "trust me" self-regulation, and willingness to cut corners to "save a few bucks." The moral hazard created by privatized profit and socialized risk has allowed bankers to cripple our economy and energy companies to destroy our planet. Ten days ago, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews lashed out at the consequences of "unbridled free enterprise," wondering why the President doesn't "nationalize that industry and get the job done."
RE-EMPOWERING GOVERNMENT: "[T]he truth is that we have disempowered government and handed vast responsibilities over to a private sector that will never see protecting the public interest as its primary task," Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne worries. In addition to the efforts to stop the leaks, BP controls claims processing, environmental contractors on land and sea, volunteer assistance, access to the disaster site, and data collection. Over the past month, the federal government has let BP block attempts to monitor the gusher, study the undersea plumes, or learn about the dispersants being used. Democratic strategist and Louisiana resident James Carville told CNN on Wednesday that Obama "needs to tell BP 'I'm your daddy, I'm in charge, you're going to do what we say.'" Obama should make it clear that BP is no longer the final decision maker -- about anything," Huffington Post columnist Dan Froomkin writes. "He should also establish that nobody in government is taking anything BP says on face value anymore." The Center for American Progress' Tom Kenworthy and Brad Johnson recommend that the federal government explicitly take command authority away from BP and mobilize the full resources of the government. The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to bar BP from new federal contracts -- including drilling in federally controlled oil fields -- because of its repeated environmental crimes. The federal government should require BP to use its first quarter 2010 profits -- $5 billion -- to establish the escrow account to pay for the disaster response.
FREEDOM FROM BIG OIL: "Even if you hadn't seen the catastrophe down in the Gulf, the reason that folks are now having to go down a mile deep into the ocean, and then another mile drilling into the ground below, that is because the easy oil fields and oil wells are gone, or they're starting to diminish," Obama said Tuesday. "That tells us we've got to have a long-term energy strategy in this country." Congress and the administration must 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. CAP and environmental organizations advocate establishing a significant oil savings reduction goal and empowering the president to achieve it. Obama and Congress should also adopt measures for cleaner vehicles and fuels, and more investment in transit -- as part of a comprehensive plan to reduce oil use. 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 destroying our atmosphere and oceans is long overdue. "We all know the price we pay as a country," Obama said. "With the increased risks and increased costs, it gives you a sense of where we're going. We're not going got be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use. This planet can't sustain it."
ECONOMY -- ANTI-STIMULUS CRUSADER GOV. RICK PERRY BALANCES HIS STATE'S BUDGET WITH STIMULUS FUNDS: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) joined a handful of Republican governors last year in rejecting various portions of the economic recovery package. Perry explained his position: "[It] was pretty simple for us. ...We can take care of ourselves." The Texas state legislature eventually pushed Perry to accept the money but he still insisted he believes "there are better ways to reinvigorate our economy and believe [the stimulus] will burden future generations with unprecedented levels of debt." However, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that "billions of dollars from that initiative helped Texas legislators balance the current budget." Perry is not the only governor to rail against the stimulus while relying on it to balance his budget. Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) called the stimulus "incoherent" and "largely wasted," but still used it to fix one-third of his state's budget hole. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office recently found that the Recovery Act not only prevented key state budget cuts around the country, but also raised GDP by up to 4 percent and created 2.8 million jobs.
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"Escalating his administration's response to the disastrous Gulf oil spill," President Obama plans to announce today that "a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling permits will be continued for six months while a presidential commission investigates." He will also issue "delays in exploration and drilling off the coasts of Alaska, and the cancellation of leases off the coast of Virginia." Countering the criticism of Republican senators, the Supreme Court's "most outspoken conservative," Justice Antonin Scalia, praised Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan for not having served as a judge. "When I first came to the Supreme Court, three of my colleagues had never been a federal judge," Scalia said yesterday. "I am happy to see that this latest nominee is not a federal judge -- and not a judge at all," he added. President Obama's decision to deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Mexican border has "confounded allies who say he is squandering his chance to address" immigration comprehensively. "I'm trying to reconcile the stated belief of this president when he was a candidate, what he has said publicly -- as recently as a naturalization ceremony last month -- and what his actions are," said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. According to White House's new national security strategy, military power alone will not sustain American global influence. U.S. leadership will also depend on expanding international partnerships beyond its traditional allies and building global institutions. The strategy calls for maintaining a strong economy and committing to "education, clean energy, science and technology, and a reduced federal deficit." A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that 60 percent of Americans say the federal government is doing a "poor" or "very poor" job handling the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Fifty-three percent said the same about President Obama's handling of the spill. Fifty percent said protecting the environment now should be a higher priority than promoting economic growth. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) said that an internal BP document shows that the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster may be leaking 14,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. BP has so far denied that the flow rate is accurate. Democrats and the White House are scrambling "to line up support for $23 billion in federal aid to avert an estimated 100,000 or more school layoffs in a brutal year for education budgets coast to coast." "We desperately need Congress to act -- to recognize the emergency for what it is," said. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. "We have to keep hundreds of thousands of teachers teaching." Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) will support the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," he announced last night. Byrd's support was won with the insertion of language that would "give Congress an additional 60 days to thoroughly review the implementation policy once certified." House Democrats say they have the votes to pass their new campaign finance reform bill. The bill, known as the DISCLOSE Act, now has 114 co-sponsors and will be voted on either at the end of this week or after the Memorial Day weekend. And finally: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) reveals that one of her "most embarrassing moments" in office came when, "while presiding over the Senate, a page handed her a note signed 'Anonymous' that read, 'Pull up your shirt.'" The incident evidently "became a joke" among some senators such as Jon Tester (D-MT). The next time Klobuchar presided over the chamber, "she got a second anonymous note. 'Your earrings don't match,' it read. 'When she looked up, Tester was cracking up in the back row.'" Follow ThinkProgress on Twitter. |
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"I said at that time that I thought Henry Paulson should not have been Treasury Secretary. I thought it was totally wrong for the former chairman of Goldman Sachs to be funneling billions of dollars from the taxpayers to Goldman Sachs."
-- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), 5/17/10, railing against the Bush bailouts in an interview with fivethirtyeight.com
VERSUS
"[T]here was a period there when you had the Federal Reserve chairman and the Secretary of the Treasury saying, 'If we don't do X, Y and Z, the entire world economy is going to collapse.' That's pretty good grounds for stopping and trying to do something."
-- Gingrich, 5/17/10, justifying the Bush bailouts in the same interview
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