Blame To Go Around

It's become clear that the Obama administration, Congress and oil giant BP PLC need to make changes in drilling operations and their oversight and that there has been a serious lack of accountability.

BP, which owns a majority interest in the blown well, has downplayed the seriousness of the disaster every step of the way. And every step the company has taken to limit or shut off the flow has failed. Granted, it's a tough job. But this is the oil company's business, and it needs to answer for the rig's failure and for its failure to seal the rupture and to provide adequate estimates and answers.

The Obama administration also needs to provide answers on why it has been lax in overseeing offshore drilling activities, as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar admitted to Congress this week. Salazar said his department's Minerals Management Service needs to be cleaned up. Perhaps splitting the agency into two as President Barack Obama has proposed is part of the answer.

Salazar also promised an overhaul of federal regulations.

Other questions need answers, too. Why didn't the government require oil rigs to have a fail-safe system to prevent such massive blowouts? And is it hampering efforts to determine the amount of the spill, as some have charged?

Congress, too, needs to get to work. First, it needs to overcome Republican stalling tactics on a measure that would raise oil companies' liability in such disasters. Those responsible for such calamities need to be held accountable. Congress also needs to get serious about legislation that would encourage a reduction in the nation's reliance on fossil fuels such as oil. A 1,000-page bill introduced last week provides a starting point.

There are a number of causes for this disaster, but surely one is a failed national energy policy. Every one of those failures needs to be addressed by industry and government.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.

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