While engineers were working to plug an out-of-control oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama administration officials were engaged in a “top kill” operation of their own.
The political version involved the forced resignation of the head of the agency that regulates offshore oil drilling. Such a move might sate the public appetite for punishment, but it’s unclear whether Elizabeth Birnbaum, head of the Minerals Management Service, was responsible for any part of the unfolding environmental disaster.
The resignation should not take the pressure off the administration to engage in a thorough investigation of the government’s regulatory system in conjunction with the cause of the accident to determine what changes ought to be made.
Such efforts are under way, and on Thursday President Obama spoke about an independent commission he is appointing to take a six-month look at the causes of the disaster.
That effort is to be headed by former Sen. Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, and William K. Reilly, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the first President Bush.
It is important to know exactly what went wrong at the drilling site, and whether government oversight could have prevented it.
It’s also imperative to figure out whether and how oil companies could be required to better prepare for disasters that unfold a mile under the surface of the sea. Offshore drilling, at least for the near future, needs to remain part of the nation’s energy portfolio.
Obama on Thursday spoke extensively about government’s failure in overseeing offshore drilling. He blamed the prior administration, as expected, but also took responsibility for a culture within the Minerals Management Service that “had not fully changed.”
Obama went on to say he had entrusted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar with making sure people at the federal agency were “operating at the highest level.” The president also took issue with the former Colorado senator’s comments about government oversight of BP. Salazar had said the federal government had its “boot on the neck” of BP.
Obama said he wasn’t overly fond of that language, and while saying BP needed to be held accountable, such language was unnecessary.
The cumulative weight of those statements make us wonder whether Birnbaum will be the only casualty from this disaster, which many are calling “Obama’s Katrina,” a reference to the devastating hurricane that occurred during the Bush administration. Much will depend, we think, on how the next few days and weeks play out.
The president planned to travel to Louisiana today to have a closer look at the efforts to plug the leak and mitigate the damage from oil coming ashore.
If the top-kill operation is successful, it will be a relief for everyone. But neither the capping of the gusher nor high-profile firings ought to take the place of a thorough examination of how this disaster happened and how another can be prevented.
