Maybe this is Obama's Katrina Moment

Written by Byron Williams

Wednesday, 02 June 2010

We are six weeks into what is now labeled as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history and no one in government or the private sector has an answer as to how to solve the catastrophic BP PLC oil spill.

In addition to the 11 individuals that have already lost their lives, it will take years before we will know the impact on the environment, wildlife, and the economy.

Even as Attorney General Eric Holder announced a criminal investigation into the events that led to the oil spill, there is no upside for BP. In all likelihood the company that emerges in the aftermath of this disaster will probably be diminished from the one of April 20, 2010 when this tragedy began.

As everyone searches for answers, there was clearly more knowledge on how to drill for oil one mile deep than what to do in the wake of a disaster. What should the public reaction be when there is a collective “I don’t know” in the midst of a man-made tragedy of this magnitude?

There are those who wish to make this President Obama’s “Katrina.” To the extent there is a disaster in a similar region of the country, there may be an applicable comparison.

But for this to be a Katrina moment for the president he would also need to be oblivious to the pain and suffering while playing a banjo at a fundraiser, bestowing “heck of a job” complements on incompetent bureaucrats.

Moreover, his staff would have needed to produce a mini-documentary in order for the president to understand just how serious the oil spill was as he flew over the Gulf of Mexico looking out his window on Air Force One.
That however does not absolve the president of criticism completely.

Does it not seem oxymoronic that he would attend a fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco, touting her bona fides on the environment while just off the coast of Louisiana the earth had been hemorrhaging oil for more than month?

Democratic political strategist and CNN commenter James Carville, who lives near the impacted area, suggests the president’s response has been too lax and too slow.

Carville may be right, but just beyond his analysis, he too falls into the murky, crowded, and frustrating category of those who do not know what to do.

As everyone involved searches for the answer that will put an end to the oil spill, there is something troubling about the president’s handling of this disaster.

Political leadership is largely based on perception. Though some have opined they would like to see the president get angry, it does not require that he throw a can of motor oil across the Oval Office to show is displeasure.

But we do need to know the president gets it beyond a press conference, which was probably two weeks too late and photos of his picking up tar balls along the impacted area.

BP is the obvious culprit in this disaster, but the problem created is a much larger one. I am perplexed at the tepid approach the president seems to embrace when it comes to future offshore drilling.

Why can’t the president be as definitive as California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a month ago, when he reversed his position on a plan he had previously championed to allow new offshore oil drilling off Santa Barbara in lieu of the BP oil spill?

The case for offshore drilling is usually based on our demand for gasoline. But oil does not function solely in terms of supply and demand. Cars, food, cosmetics, agriculture, plastic etc, depend on oil—we are a petroleum-based economy.

Offshore drilling, in the best-case scenario, is a band-aid that requires a more comprehensive, and dare I say, uncomfortable long-term solution.

Given the current estimates that the oil spill is emitting 12,000-15,000 barrels per day, along with the number of days since the disaster began, even calculating at the high end the oil lost has yet to exceed the United States’ oil consumption in a single day.

The risk versus reward hardly seems prudent; and it certainly does not warrant continuing down the existing path.

The president may not have the answer to stop the current spill, but he does have the answer to put an end to offshore drilling and move the nation toward a long-term solution. And if the president does not understand that much this may very well be his Katrina moment.