First of all there is BP, who is probably taking the most blame and probably should.
BP was the company that was leasing the oil rig in the Gulf that exploded and also was the responsible party for underestimating how much oil would spill into the sea and move towards the shorelines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and possibly elsewhere in the United States and Mexico.
According to the New York Times, "Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, expressed confidence the spill could be contained."
So, in other words, the company was ill-prepared to contain an oil spill and certainly wasn't ready when it happened. How could a company that works with oil all over the world not be ready to contain an oil spill or incorrectly estimate how much oil would spill?
That is why BP is and should take the most blame for this oil spill.
However, BP is trying to shift blame to other companies and the US government.
Most notably, BP and Hayward are blaming Transocean, the company from whom BP leases the oil rig in the Gulf, saying it was Transocean's faulty rig that was the cause for the explosion and oil leak.
No matter what shape the oil rig in the Gulf was in, it still caused a spill and BP did almost nothing at first to deal with it in a large-scale manor. Also, if you're going to lease something, shouldn't you check to make sure all systems are working 100%? Just a thought.
Second, as much as I've praised President Obama in the past, and I will praise him again here, his administration was slow to react. Even though it is BP's responsibility to clean up the oil, the government should have been sending people out there from the get go to clean up because you cannot rely completely on an oil company to fix all your problems.
In this measure, the government is to blame because while the President and half of Congress was out claiming that offshore drilling is safe, it actually isn't. This proves it.
While the Obama Administration has done a good job since BP recalculated its estimate that the spill would be much bigger than expected in sending out the Coast Guard to help clean and attempt to prevent the oil from reaching the coastline, it should have done better from the start.
I'd say that BP is to blame, but that the President should have been quicker to react, after all, if the recession and the recent Goldman Sachs debacle has taught us anything, it is to not trust large companies.
I think this clip from The Daily Show sums up this situation pretty well:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Beyond Awful | ||||
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