The U.S. official leading the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill said Sunday that only BP had the expertise to plug the gaping hole in its deepwater well and that he trusted the oil company was doing its best.
The comments by Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, signaled that the U.S. government wouldn’t take a larger role in stopping the five-week-old spill even as frustration along the Gulf Coast grows over the Obama administration’s policy of letting BP run the effort.
While officials in Louisiana readied for an expansive oil slick to make landfall on Grand Isle, a major tourist hub, BP officials said they would deploy late Tuesday or before dawn Wednesday their latest attempt to stop the spill – a complex “top kill” maneuver that involves pumping the hole full of mud and cement.
At the same time, the Justice Department has sent officials to the Gulf to look into the spill, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, without elaborating if criminal charges would be filed against BP or the other private companies that were working on the Deepwater Horizon oilrig when it exploded April 20.
Full story: Only BP has expertise to stop spill, top U.S. response official says – Politics AP – MiamiHerald.com