Lawmakers from U.S. President Barack Obama’s own Democratic Party called the nearly six-week oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico an “environmental crime” and demanded $1 billion from BP to protect the region’s treasured marshlands.
The failure on Saturday of a “top kill” technique attempted by London-based BP to try to seal its leaking Gulf well has unleashed a surge of anger that poses a major domestic challenge to Obama and his party in an election year.
“This is probably the biggest environmental disaster we have ever faced in this country,” White House adviser Carol Browner told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The Gulf spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989 as the worst U.S. oil spill, with an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons/1.9 million to 3 million liters) leaking per day.
Given the enormity of the disaster, critics say Obama was too slow to respond.
“I hold Obama responsible for not making BP stand up and look at the people in the face and fix it,” said Dean Blanchard, owner of a seafood business, who spoke at a protest rally in New Orleans on Sunday.
“It’s not right what is going on, I didn’t do nothing wrong, I didn’t deserve this,” he told the hundreds of protesters, some of whom carried signs, such as “Seize BP.”
CEO SAYS ‘WE’RE SORRY’
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, the target of ire over his company’s failures to stop the spill and protect vital wetlands, apologized to Gulf Coast residents.
“The first thing is to say we’re sorry, we’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives, there’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do,” Hayward said as he visited the fishing hub of Venice yesterday.
