The government official in charge of resolving the BP Oil Disaster says he's deferring to BP.
McClatchy:
The U.S. official leading the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill said Sunday that only BP had the expertise to plug the gaping hole in its deepwater well and that he trusted the oil company was doing its best.
The comments by Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, signaled that the U.S. government wouldn't take a larger role in stopping the five-week-old spill even as frustration in the Gulf coast grows over the Obama administration's policy of letting BP run the cleanup.
But as Jed pointed out, this New York Times article is not encouraging:
The effort to stanch the vast Gulf of Mexico oil spill was mired by setbacks on Monday as state and federal officials feuded with BP over its failure to meet deadlines and its refusal to stop spraying a toxic dispersant in the Gulf.
The oil company had indicated that it could stem the flow of oil on Tuesday by attempting a procedure known as a top kill, in which heavy fluid would be pumped into the well. But on Monday morning the company’s chief operating officer said the procedure would be delayed until Wednesday. At the same time, BP was locked in a tense standoff with the Environmental Protection Agency, which had ordered the company to end its use of a toxic chemical dispersant called Corexit by Sunday.
But the oil giant continued spraying the chemical on Monday, despite the E.P.A.’s demand that it use a less toxic dispersant to break up the oil.
We're now a month into this crisis, and no one seems to know how to stop the oil gusher. BP has been soliciting help from the public. Local officials want to build fortresses of sand. The Coast Guard says "no one anticipated that (the dispersant) would ever be used at this scale and this scope."
Suffice to say that if BP knew what it was doing, it wouldn't be soliciting help from the public. Suffice to say that if the Coast Guard knew what it was doing, it wouldn't be deferring to BP. Suffice to say that local officials are literally grasping at sand. In other words, no one knows how to solve this. No one anticipated. It's all guesswork. A month after the well blew.
So, here's the question: if no one knows how to stop such a disaster, why is anyone allowed to risk starting one, in the first place? If no one knows how to stop such a leak in such deep water, why is anyone allowed to drill there?
Just asking.