Less talk, more action in Gulf

So what did Americans get this week from their political leaders regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

President Barack Obama’s speech was roundly criticized, even by left-leaning pundits, as being empty and detached, with plenty of talk about the faults and liabilities of British Petroleum. And we got a lot of gasbagging on Capitol Hill.

The problem, it seems, is that Americans, particularly those living in Gulf Coast states, are getting really tired of speeches and political jousting on this disaster.

Obviously, if the gusher couldn’t be capped in two months, the situation is profoundly complicated, and a solution doesn’t appear to be on the near horizon. The sole priority for the Obama administration should be finding the solution or clearing the way for others to do so, rather than beach visits, speeches, and “keeping a boot on the neck” of BP’s leadership.

BP is rightly being held accountable for the mess. The company was pressured into creating a $20 billion fund for compensating for economic losses caused by the spill, and President Obama made it clear that amount is not a ceiling for future liability claims against the company.

Congressmen grilled the BP chief executive for five hours Thursday and came away unsatisfied with his answers. For all the political posturing and posing, nothing much came from the inquisition, except that the next day the chief executive was demoted.

What is not so obvious is whether the president and the federal government are being held properly accountable for this mess and its economic impacts.

For starters, it is astounding that the president issued a knee-jerk moratorium on all offshore drilling, a move that is expected to idle thousands of oil workers in a region that is already suffering economic losses due to the spill and the recession.

And what about the cleanup? For weeks, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been railing against federal obstacles that have hindered his state’s efforts to take action. At first it was red tape that delayed Jindal’s plans to build temporary offshore barriers. The federal government also rejected early on an offer from the Dutch to deploy oil skimming equipment in the Gulf. This week, the U.S. Coast Guard shut down 16 barges that had been effectively vacuuming up thousands of gallons of oil in the Gulf. Why? The Coast Guard needed to confirm that fire extinguishers and life vests were on board the barges.

Understandably, Gov. Jindal and other Gulf Coast governors are more than frustrated in dealing with the Coast Guard and an array of other agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As Alabama Gov. Bob Riley put it, “It’s like this huge committee down here, and every decision that we try to implement, any one person on that committee has absolute veto power.”

The oil spill has made it painfully clear that our bloated federal bureaucracy cannot solve all problems under the sun, nor do we think it should be expected to do so. It has also made it clear that in this case, perhaps the government should do everything it can to get out of the way of those who can take quick, pragmatic action to curb the damage and eventually, stop the leak.

No more speeches, please.