Like an albatross hanging around his neck, the BP oil disaster will be Barack Obama’s ‘Katrina’.
While George Bush took only a few days to mobilize a federal response to the flooding in New Orleans after the hurricane hit in 2005, Obama’s administration has gone over a month with no real response to BP’s crippled oil rig leaking thousands of barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico.
Back in March, Obama held a press conference to announce he was climbing further into bed with the big oil companies by expanding offshore drilling into the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico and opening up areas off of the east coast that were, up to now, protected from offshore drilling.
Obama explained his decision would mean decreased dependency on imported oil from other countries. Major oil companies, such as BP, were naturally ecstatic — and ready to open their wallets to snap up multi-million dollar offshore leases.
But Obama’s new drilling policy angered environmentalists and residents who live near the coasts of Florida, Georgia, SC, NC and Maryland where offshore drilling would occur for the first time.
Obama arrogantly ignored angry protests from the governors and senators of those states by downplaying the risks to the environment, while sucking up to the big oil companies.
He said drilling wouldn’t begin right away — even though the first lease sale off the coast of Virginia would take place next year!
Obama said oil drilling would be put on hold until his Interior Department finished conducting geologic and environmental studies in the newly opened areas.
Now, in the wake of the BP oil disaster, Obama and his Interior Department have shown no leadership in response to the damage caused to the coastlines, fisheries and tourist attractions in the Gulf.
Instead, Obama’s narcissistic response to the disaster is to let BP — a privately held oil company — handle it themselves.
