U.S. officials said Tuesday that BP PLC was collecting so much oil from its broken well a mile under the Gulf of Mexico that it didn’t have a big enough boat to hold it—the latest in a series of miscalculations stoking a political backlash against BP and the global oil industry.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday piled the pressure on BP and its beleaguered chief executive, Tony Hayward, telling NBC News in an interview aired Tuesday that he would have fired Mr. Hayward by now if he worked for him. The president responded to criticism that his response to the crisis has been too cool and that he shouldn’t be spending time meeting with experts, saying he had been talking to experts “so I know whose ass to kick.”
Frustration over the spill could cost BP and its oil industry rivals heavily in the years to come. The costs will come in the form of new regulations—such as those issued Tuesday by the Obama administration as the prerequisite for companies to resume offshore drilling in waters shallower than 500 feet.
Full story: Backlash Mounts on Spill – WSJ.com