Fight terrorism

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared on Thursday that he is “angry and frustrated” over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and ordered a further moratorium on new permits to drill new deepwater wells as he tried to address deepening public frustration.

President Obama spoke about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.

Defending his handling of the five-week-old crisis, Mr. Obama used a midday White House news conference to reject criticism that he and his administration have not taken control of the situation, saying that every move made by BP, the oil company whose stricken undersea well is leaking the oil, has to be approved first by the federal government.

“Every day I see this leak continue, I am angry and frustrated as well,” the president told reporters in the East Room. He acknowledged that not every decision has been perfect, and “we can always do better.” But he added: “Those who think we were either slow in our response or lacked urgency don’t know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred.”

The president expressed frustration both with BP for its handling of the disaster and with the criticism of his own team’s oversight. “But make no mistake, BP is operating at our direction,” he said. “Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance.”

Brushing off comparisons to his predecessor’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Mr. Obama said that the government has made “the largest effort of its kind in U.S. history” to address the oil leak, deploying 20,000 people, 1,300 vessels and 3 million feet of boom in the region to contain and clean up the spill.

“We are relying on every resource and every idea, every expert and every bit of technology to work to stop it,” the president said. “We will take ideas from anywhere but we are going to stop it. I know that doesn’t lessen the enormous sense of anger and frustration felt by people on the Gulf and so many Americans.”

Fielding questions from reporters, Mr. Obama acknowledged that he should have moved more aggressively before the oil spill to clean up what he called a cozy and corrupt relationship between regulators and the oil industry. “Absolutely, I take responsibility for that,” he said. “There wasn’t a sufficient urgency.” Although the regulators were in some instances constrained by law from being more thoroughgoing, he added, “We should have busted through those constraints.”

He also conceded that the government had been slow to correct early estimates of the scale of the oil spill, and said BP had not been completely forthcoming about it. There were also shortcomings in advance planning for accidents of this kind, such as in positioning of containment booms, he said.

The news conference came hours after the head of the agency that regulates offshore drilling stepped down under pressure. S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, who took over as director of the Minerals Management Service last July, announced her resignation after being asked by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to relinquish her post, a government official said. While she might have stayed in the department in another position, she decided instead to resign, the official said.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama ordered a further six-month moratorium on new permits for new deepwater oil and gas wells; suspended the planned exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off the coast of Alaska; canceled a planned August lease sale in the western Gulf of Mexico; and canceled a proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia. Environmentalists who had opposed the Alaska and Virginia projects hailed the decisions.

Mr. Obama said further moves will be made to strengthen oversight of the drilling industry and enhance safety as a commission he is appointing opens its own six-month inquiry. The commission will be led by former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, and William K. Reilly, who was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the first President Bush.

The effort to stem further drilling represents a marked turnaround for Mr. Obama, who just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion had proposed to expand offshore oil exploration as a response to the nation’s continuing need for new energy sources. But it reflects the volatile and rapidly shifting political environment as Mr. Obama struggles to find a way to demonstrate leadership even as efforts to stop and clean up the spill falter.

Ms. Birnbaum’s resignation came after weeks of questions about whether she was up to the task of remaking the Minerals Management Service, an agency widely recognized as one of the most dysfunctional in government.

A Harvard trained lawyer, she was described by friends as smart, tenacious, persistent and tough, but she has also been criticized as doing almost nothing to fix problems that have plagued the agency for more than a decade. She rarely visited the agency’s far-flung offices, and critics said the same agency managers who ignored or suppressed scientists’ concerns about safety and environmental risks of some off-shore drilling plans in the past were still doing the same things under her.

Anahad O’Connor contributed reporting.

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WASHINGTON — President Obama declared on Thursday that he is “angry and frustrated” over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and ordered a further moratorium on new permits to drill new deepwater wells as he tried to address deepening public frustration.

President Obama spoke about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.

Defending his handling of the five-week-old crisis, Mr. Obama used a midday White House news conference to reject criticism that he and his administration have not taken control of the situation, saying that every move made by BP, the oil company whose stricken undersea well is leaking the oil, has to be approved first by the federal government.

“Every day I see this leak continue, I am angry and frustrated as well,” the president told reporters in the East Room. He acknowledged that not every decision has been perfect, and “we can always do better.” But he added: “Those who think we were either slow in our response or lacked urgency don’t know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred.”

The president expressed frustration both with BP for its handling of the disaster and with the criticism of his own team’s oversight. “But make no mistake, BP is operating at our direction,” he said. “Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance.”

Brushing off comparisons to his predecessor’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Mr. Obama said that the government has made “the largest effort of its kind in U.S. history” to address the oil leak, deploying 20,000 people, 1,300 vessels and 3 million feet of boom in the region to contain and clean up the spill.

“We are relying on every resource and every idea, every expert and every bit of technology to work to stop it,” the president said. “We will take ideas from anywhere but we are going to stop it. I know that doesn’t lessen the enormous sense of anger and frustration felt by people on the Gulf and so many Americans.”

Fielding questions from reporters, Mr. Obama acknowledged that he should have moved more aggressively before the oil spill to clean up what he called a cozy and corrupt relationship between regulators and the oil industry. “Absolutely, I take responsibility for that,” he said. “There wasn’t a sufficient urgency.” Although the regulators were in some instances constrained by law from being more thoroughgoing, he added, “We should have busted through those constraints.”

He also conceded that the government had been slow to correct early estimates of the scale of the oil spill, and said BP had not been completely forthcoming about it. There were also shortcomings in advance planning for accidents of this kind, such as in positioning of containment booms, he said.

The news conference came hours after the head of the agency that regulates offshore drilling stepped down under pressure. S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, who took over as director of the Minerals Management Service last July, announced her resignation after being asked by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to relinquish her post, a government official said. While she might have stayed in the department in another position, she decided instead to resign, the official said.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama ordered a further six-month moratorium on new permits for new deepwater oil and gas wells; suspended the planned exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off the coast of Alaska; canceled a planned August lease sale in the western Gulf of Mexico; and canceled a proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia. Environmentalists who had opposed the Alaska and Virginia projects hailed the decisions.

Mr. Obama said further moves will be made to strengthen oversight of the drilling industry and enhance safety as a commission he is appointing opens its own six-month inquiry. The commission will be led by former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, and William K. Reilly, who was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the first President Bush.

The effort to stem further drilling represents a marked turnaround for Mr. Obama, who just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion had proposed to expand offshore oil exploration as a response to the nation’s continuing need for new energy sources. But it reflects the volatile and rapidly shifting political environment as Mr. Obama struggles to find a way to demonstrate leadership even as efforts to stop and clean up the spill falter.

Ms. Birnbaum’s resignation came after weeks of questions about whether she was up to the task of remaking the Minerals Management Service, an agency widely recognized as one of the most dysfunctional in government.

A Harvard trained lawyer, she was described by friends as smart, tenacious, persistent and tough, but she has also been criticized as doing almost nothing to fix problems that have plagued the agency for more than a decade. She rarely visited the agency’s far-flung offices, and critics said the same agency managers who ignored or suppressed scientists’ concerns about safety and environmental risks of some off-shore drilling plans in the past were still doing the same things under her.

Anahad O’Connor contributed reporting.

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