The Wall-Street Journal has reported the latest actions the government has taken in response to the oil spill, and I'm in approval of these actions:
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, fighting to stay ahead of the political storm over the Gulf oil spill, is expected to announce on Thursday that the government will impose tougher safety requirements and more rigorous inspections on off-shore drilling operations.
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BP has said it will attempt the operation today. After initially balking a broadcasting the attempt on its live Internet feed, the firm relented at the request of the president and the administration response team, an administration official said. Company officials have cautioned the maneuver has never been done in such deep water. The leaking well is a mile below the surface.
Please read for more good news on the government response so far below the jump:
Administration officials say those changes will include new permitting procedures to ensure rig safety. Additional inspections of the rigs will be required, in part to verify that safety features and environmental precautions accepted during the permitting process were in place. Those regulatory changes are detailed in a 30-day review that was ordered by the president last month and due on his desk on Thursday. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to reveal many of the review's recommendations during congressional testimony on Wednesday.
However, one thing I'd like to see changed is the control that BP has in hiring contractors to install booming along the beaches. According to the Wall Street Journal, state officials are angry over the ineffective booming operations:
BP is responsible for paying for the boom and has hired contractors to install it. A variety of government officials are involved in deciding where to install the boom. Late last week, for instance, in Terrebonne Parish, west of the Mississippi River along the coast, booms sat waiting to be installed for more than a day. Local leaders were incensed, and lashed out at federal officials and BP in community meetings. Edwin Stanton, the Coast Guard official who is in charge of the New Orleans area and is one of the senior Coast Guard officials fighting the spill, told a community gathering in Houma, La., on Saturday that he had had "a heated moment" the day before, when he had learned "that some of the equipment on the beach hadn't been deployed as I directed it to be deployed" in Terrebonne Parish. "Believe me, I fixed it," he said.
This is why I am in favor of the government stepping in, and taking charge of the clean-up operation, while leaving the underseas work on the broken pipe to BP. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 does allow the government to step in and take charge of the operation. I'm currently interviewing David Pettit, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, on over the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and how it empowers the government to take charge of the oil spill.
You really should read David's post, and hopefully tomorrow I'll have the full answers to the questions I've asked him in a separate diary.