Obama’s Oil Reform Opportunity: Setting America on the Road to Recovery from the BP DisasterBy Daniel J. Weiss (Center for American Progress) | June 14, 2010
President Barack Obama has made four trips to visit gulf state communities affected by the BP disaster and now plans to give his first-ever Oval Office speech to the nation this Tuesday evening to address the issue. This manmade calamity threatens the nation’s economy, health, and environment. This is also a crucial moment in the BP catastrophe, which threatens to swamp his domestic agenda. But it also provides an opportunity for President Obama to demonstrate leadership by tackling all the aspects of this crisis, including taking charge of the clean up, getting more help from BP, providing long-term public health and economic recovery, and adopting an oil-use and pollution-reduction reform agenda to minimize the likelihood of another catastrophe.
Americans are legitimately frustrated and furious about the oil disaster, which has gone on for 55 days and counting. The public has grave concerns about BP’s inability to stop or slow the gusher of oil contaminating the gulf. Opinion polls also show that respondents have an unfavorable view of the government’s handling of the disaster. This is undoubtedly due to the government’s inability to get BP to staunch the flood of oil, even though BP has far more advanced technology and oil blow-out experience than the federal government.
President Obama must use his speech to make a compelling and passionate case for comprehensive clean-up measures as well as an oil reform program. This is essential to galvanize public demand for immediate steps to reduce damage from the disaster, as well as more active support for longer-term oil use and pollution reductions.
The president should also announce dramatic actions to respond to the oil crisis in the gulf in the following (19) ways, some of which he has already begun:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/06/reform_opportunity.html The 19 "dramatic actions" are spilt up into these categories: "
Demand more help from BP", "
Provide health and economic aid to people in the gulf region", "
Prevent future blowouts and disasters" and "
Reduce oil use and pollution".
They are all equally urgent, but the latter action should be the 1st stage of the ultimate goal, "Eliminate fossil fuel use and pollution'.
As well as eventually being healthy for the environment and increasing the longevity of our species, in the short to medium term an invigorated renewable energy industry will create potentially hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs.
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