Placing blame on the spill? Look to your left

As the BP accident shows, oil may be the fourth rail of American politics; get it right or get packing. Obama is now watching his poll numbers sink, but his fate on this issue was set long ago by his own crowd, regardless of his own lack of leadership or culpability on the issue.

Most oil and natural gas companies have taken the hand Washington dealt and still managed to effectively and safely provide our nation with the fuel it needs to run. The President and Congress should learn from these companies’ best practices – see what they’re doing right – and compare them to others’ worst practices and bring real standards to drilling operations. We cannot prevent acts of God, but we can prevent acts of laziness and idiocy.

If the White House were serious about both finding more energy sources and protecting the environment, more onshore and shallow water areas would be open for energy exploration, not fewer. Energy exploration and development companies would live and work under an established set of guidelines, and bureaucrats would take their roles as public servants seriously. Then perhaps, Obama would see better poll numbers regarding his leadership since he would finally appear “fully engaged” in creating more sources of energy instead of creating more corporate criminals.

James L. Martin serves as the Chairman of the 60 Plus Association.