Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 7, 2010

At least Department of the Interior Chief Tom Strickland wasn’t smacking a little ball about golfing like POTUS has been during other world events and national crises…

From ABC News, While Oil Slick Spread, Interior Department Chief of Staff Rafted with Wife on “Work-Focused” Trip in Grand Canyon:
Though his agency was charged with coordinating the federal response to the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland was in the Grand Canyon with his wife last week participating in activities that included white-water rafting, ABC News has learned.

Other leaders of the Interior Department were focused on the Gulf, joined by other agencies and literally thousands of other employees. But Strickland’s participation in a trip that administration officials insisted was “work-focused” raised eyebrows among other Obama administration officials and even within even his own department, sources told ABC News.

Strickland, who also serves as Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, was in the Grand Canyon with his wife Beth for a total of three days, including one day of rafting. Beth Strickland paid her own way, Obama administration officials said.

The Stricklands departed for the Grand Canyon three days after the leaks in the Deepwater Horizon pipeline were discovered. Ultimately, after the government realized that the spill was worse than had been previously thought, officials decided that Strickland was needed in the Gulf so Strickland was taken out of the Grand Canyon by a National Park Service helicopter.

One government official, asking for anonymity because of the political sensitivities involved, told ABC News that some Interior Department employees thought it was “irresponsible” for Strickland to have gone on the trip, given the crisis in the Gulf, which was fully apparent at the time he departed for the Grand Canyon.

When asked about Strickland’s trip, Interior Department press secretary Kendra Barkoff told ABC News that “the federal government has been all over this issue from day one in a unified coordinated response.”

From NY Times, Amount of Spill Could Escalate, Company Admits:

WASHINGTON — In a closed-door briefing for members of Congress, a senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 times the estimate of the current flow.

The scope of the problem has grown drastically since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank into the gulf. Now, the discussion with BP on Capitol Hill is certain to intensify pressure on the company, which is facing a crisis similar to what the Toyota Motor Company had with uncontrolled acceleration — despite its efforts to control the damage to its reputation as a corporate citizen, the problem may be worsening.

Amid growing uncertainty about the extent of the leak, and when it might be stanched, pressure on BP intensified on multiple fronts Tuesday, from increasingly frustrated residents of the Gulf Coast to federal, state and local officials demanding more from the company.

[...]

Federal officials have raised the possibility of a leak of more than 100,000 barrels a day if the well were to flow unchecked, but the chances of that situation occurring were unclear.

Also on Tuesday, the company’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, told Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, that the spill would clearly cause more than $75 million in economic damage, the current cap on liability for drilling accidents.

Mr. Nelson and the two Democratic senators from New Jersey, Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, have introduced legislation to raise that cap to $10 billion, and to make sure that the new limit applies to this spill.

[...]

“It’s a situation laced with irony, and perceived hypocrisy,” said Abbey Klaassen, executive editor of Advertising Age. “It is a fine line between what they want to say for legal reasons and what consumers want to hear which is: ‘Mea culpa. We accept responsibility, we will clean it up, and this will never happen again.’ ”

BP is playing to a particularly skeptical and vigilant audience in the gulf, where people have become accustomed to frustrating clashes with insurance companies and government agencies in the five years since Hurricane Katrina.

Related:
Gateway Pundit: Leaked Report From April 28 Shows US Government Believed Gulf Spill Could Become “Unchecked Gusher” and More Hope & Change… Obama Interior Chief Went White-Water Rafting While Oil Slick Spread and It Begins… GOP Reps Call for Investigation into Obama Administration’s Slow and Weak Response to BP Gulf Oil Spill and Obama Takes Break From Campaigning… Visits Oil Slick Disaster 12 Days Late
Frugal Café Blog ‘Zone: Big Oil $$ Bonanza: Obama Raked in Millions from BP Over Last 2 Decades, LA Sen. Landrieu Also Rec’d BP Money, Investigation into Obama’s Slow Response to Oil Crisis and You Knew This Would Happen: Libs Blame GW Bush for Gulf Oil Spill Disaster, Obama Blameless & Praised (audio-video) and Rush Limbaugh on “Obama’s Katrina”: Timeline of Obama Not Taking Swift Action to Contain the Gulf Oil Spill
Michelle Malkin: No wonder finger-pointing Obama wants oil spill finger-pointing to stop
Amused Cynic: Congress is holding hearings on the wrong gusher…
Patterico’s Pontifications: Obama’s Donors
The Lonely Conservative: Oil Slick Spread While Obama’s Secretary of the Interior was White Water Rafting
Politico: Obama biggest recipient of BP cash
Another Black Conservative: Obama is the biggest recipient of BP cash in 20 years
GayPatriot: Our Big Oil President
Brian Sussman, American Thinker: Taking Advantage of an Oil Crisis
Riehl World View: Milbank: “Exquisite” That Oil Spill Impacts Red States
Legal Insurrection: “Limited Federal Government = No Government” (or something like that)
New York Times: U.S. Missed Chances to Act on Oil Spill
Mcnorman’s Weblog: They Knew How Bad This Oil Slick Could Be
HillBuzz: Question: How can the White House and Democrats at large manage and dictate your healthcare if they can’t come up with an effective strategy for handling an oil spill?

Categories: Business & Economy, Environment and Earth, Government, National Security, Social and Political Climate
Tags: Barack Obama, BP oil leak, BP oil spill, British Petroleum, Chandeleur Islands, donations, ecology, environment, Exxon Valdez, Exxon Valdez oil spill, Grand Canyon, Gulf Coast, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Gulf oil spill, liberal, Louisiana, Louisiana oil spill, oil leak, oil spill, oil spill disaster, oil spill Gulf of Mexico, POTUS, Pres. Obama, state of emergency, Tom Strickland, US Gulf Coast, Valdez