US Features

Obama seeks control of oil crisis with Oval Office address

By Chris Cermak Jun 16, 2010, 12:18 GMT

US President Barack Obama is pictured moments after addressing the American people about the gulf oil crisis, his first prime time address from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC, USA, on 15 June 2010. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO

   Washington - An address to the public from the Oval Office of the White House is sparingly used by US presidents, typically in times of major crises or celebration.

   Former president George W Bush spoke directly from the seat of US power just six times in his eight-year presidency, most notably on the evening of September 11, 2001, and at the onset of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

   And so it was as much President Barack Obama's choice of location as the topic that made his speech from the Oval Office Tuesday night an important occasion in the United States.

   Obama used the prime-time evening address, the first since he entered office in January 2009, to quell some of the rising frustration over his administration's handling of the massive and ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

   The Oval Office is designed to lend a greater sense of gravity to the address. Obama's language reflected that severity, calling the oil spill an 'epidemic' that had caused the 'the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.'

   Obama spoke of the 'battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens' and promised to throw 'everything we've got' at the clean-up effort and long-term recovery.

   There has also been some shift in action as Obama looks to assert more control over the crisis. On Wednesday the president will meet for the first time since the crisis began with the top executives from oil giant BP, which is responsible for cleaning up the spill.

   Obama also called for a long-term restoration plan for the long suffering Gulf Coast region, already blighted by past hurricanes and floods, and will instruct BP on Wednesday to create an independently-managed fund to handle damage claims from local Gulf businesses.

   Opponents and even some supporters have criticized Obama for a seeming lack of urgency in the first weeks after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, springing a leak in the underwater well that has yet to be plugged.

   With limited technical resources of its own, the administration has often been left with few options but to watch as BP struggles to contain the leak. This has led some critics to dub the spill 'Obama's Katrina,' comparing his response to Bush's handling of the 2005 hurricane.

   James Carville, a long-time Democratic Party strategist from Louisiana, became one of Obama's most furious critics, slamming the president in late May for 'political stupidity' and a hands-off response to the crisis.

   While the administration repeatedly said it was operating under a worst-case scenario, there may have been an underestimation of the disaster. Initial official estimates suggested just 5,000 barrels of oil were leaking from the ruptured well per day.

   Those estimates have skyrocketed since, amid accusations that BP, which leased the Deepwater rig, may have played down the figures. Government scientists now believe up to 60,000 barrels of oil could be leaking per day.

   Obama's approval ratings had already been struggling before the oil disaster, dropping below 50 per cent amid divisive battles over health care reform and a still weak economy.

   The oil response has yet to drop Obama's overall ratings even lower. But in the last few weeks, Obama has still sought to demonstrate that he gets the message.

   In an interview last week with the website politico.com, Obama said the oil disaster 'echoes' the 2001 terrorist attacks in how it would shape the US psyche on energy issues for many years to come.

   The Oval Office speech was also fresh off Obama's third trip to the Gulf Coast region in as many weeks.