Dereliction of Duty--President Barack Obama (vanity)

06/13/2010 | Elizabeth Pasek

[EBH]

Dereliction of Duty

I am not a southern coast person. I live thousands of miles away from what is happening on our Gulf coast and yet I am not immune to the results. This spill will cost us, the US Taxpayer, over a billion dollars. President Barack Obama attempts to put this cost onto BP Oil and while they are indeed culpable for the failure of the rig; it is the government that is culpable regarding a Spill of National Significance. It is President Barack Obama that is charged with direct duties and responsibilities under the Clean Water Act when a worst case scenario strikes.

Those duties are to be executed by the President of the United States. Under the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan during a Spill of National Significance the government is to direct all, ALL, "direct all federal, state or private actions" to mitigate the spill "where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States." While under the plan those abilities and duties have been delegated through the use of Executive Orders to agencies within the government, ultimate responsibility for the execution of those duties, the financial funds, and the authority to act without congressional approval to mitigate the spill is traced back to the Clean Water Act 311 (c)(2). The President is given, through the law, wide authority to respond to a Spill of National Significance.

It is only the President that has that authority.

Yes, BP Oil will pay for this spill. Our laws though are written in such a manner as to protect our nation and businesses in the event of a Spill of National Significance. The clean up and mitigation of such spills does not rest with the business that had the unfortunate accident. At the time the laws were written it was understood that any singular entity may not have all the resources available to mitigate such an event. After the Exxon Valdez spill the National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan and the Trust Fund to pay for such accidents were established. President George W. Bush increased the trust fund amount in 2005.

President Barack Obama has been derelict in his duties to respond to what is the worst oil spill in US history. President Barack Obama and only he have the widest authority to act in regards to the oil spill. The lame blame game being played by him in attempting to affix responsibility for his own actions to peer pressure from Republicans, Tea Party Activists, etc. does not relieve him of his authorized lawful responsibilities to clean up and mitigate a Spill of National Significance.

There is numerous documentation of President Barack Obama’s negligence over the course of this Spill of National Significance.

 Jindal said he is explaining his concerns to the White House "that this incident may be overwhelming the capabilities of BP to respond to this disaster." The governor added that his repeated requests for the feds to share their cleanup plan with him have gone unanswered.

 Requests for building of sand bars went unanswered.

 Packgen has thousands of miles of oil boom sitting in a warehouse that no one will come get.

 The President declining international assistance offered by 13 countries with the equipment to help mitigate the spill.

Only the President has the authority to order this stuff up, not BP Oil during a Spill of National Significance. The President has failed to carry out his lawfully assigned duties. He has been derelict on those duties and has failed to respond appropriately to a catastrophic event. Instead of fomenting a united front to manage this crisis, he works to create divisiveness and obscure his own direct responsibility for the ongoing damage being placed upon our Nation.

If he continues to fail to respond, President Barack Obama will be responsible for the spill mitigation strategies of the United States of America, under international treaties. Those costs well not be born by BP Oil. Those costs belong to us, the United States of America and will be the result of the dereliction of duty by President Barack Obama.

[EBH]

It is important to get people to understand that, due the scale of this spill, all authority to act to clean up and mitigate lawfully rests with the Office of the President.

[Real Cynic No More]

The usurper has spent or committed so much money on special interests and non-essentials, that there is nothing left for emergencies. The stories of The Ant and the Grasshopper and The Little Red Hen really are more true in their analogies than ever before in the past. obama and his minions have traveled more, spent more on non-essentials - or in other words, ‘fiddled while Rome is burning’ - than has any other administration in the past. They’ve used up our reserves so that when we do have another emergency that requires lots of expenditures, the money is not there.

[silverleaf]

Imagine if George Bush had reacted to 9-11 by demanding that the airlines pay all the costs of damages to NYC, the Pentagon, and all the victims