We are not among those inclined to hammer the Obama administration for the continuing inability to plug the out-of-control oil well gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
That is BP’s responsibility and is not something that is within the government’s capacity to fix.
However, the government is responsible for shoring up its failed regulatory oversight, restoring the Gulf’s ecology and infrastructure and helping to ensure that all damages are fully paid.
Those are the subjects we would have liked to have heard President Obama spend the lion’s share of his speech Tuesday evening addressing.
Instead, those issues got a passing mention in an address that expended a lot of energy likening the disaster to a war, and using it as a pivot point to push for a comprehensive energy policy bill.
While we have long believed in the need to develop alternative energy sources, the president offered little on the topic that was new.
By contrast, it would have served the public well to hear more, in reasonably specific terms, about how Michael Bromwich, the new Minerals Management Service director, will go about reforming the long- troubled service. That is something that is squarely within the government’s purview and could have served to support the president’s statement that the government will act to ensure such an environmental disaster does not happen again.
Along those lines, we think it would have been comforting for the people of the Gulf Coast to hear more about the idea of a restoration plan for the region.
We understand that the plan would be designed by those who live in the area, so it would be inappropriate to sharply delineate actual details in advance. But it would have been helpful to hear from the president just a bit more about how such a restoration effort would take place and how it would be paid for.
Finally, we were glad to see that the president elicited a commitment Wednesday from BP for the creation of a $20 billion fund for spill claims. We have to wonder why he didn’t push to have the agreement in place in time for his speech and use the televised format to expound upon how such a fund could be used to compensate those injured by the spill.
That is weighing heavily on the minds of those whose lives have been disrupted and livelihoods put on hold.
It would have been wise politics, we think, and an exercise of leadership to use the platform of an Oval Office address to announce the spill fund.
We hope the president will address these topics in more depth as time goes on, expounding on oil spill issues and problems that the administration can actually control.
