From that NYT article, the US government “missed chances to act” because they were relying on the assurances of BP that things were under control.
Should the Feds had overruled the estimates of the oil company itself, and have just charged in and seized control? Isn’t that tyrannical and dictatorial? So is more regulation the answer?
Should Obama seize every rig that has an accident or suffers a spill, in case it might get worse, or is worse than the owners admit? What about the Alaskan pipeline? Natural gas wells or coal mines?
What would be the truly Conservative, small-government approach to problems like this?
He doesn’t have to seize it but there are federal laws on the books on how to handle this type of situation where the damage can be minimized. The oil companies all pay into this huge fund for this type of incident. It’s there to offset the cost of federal agencies.
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA)
http://www.uscg.mil/npfc/About_NPFC/opa.asp
The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF)
http://www.uscg.mil/npfc/About_NPFC/osltf.asp