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Obama vows to hold BP accountable
[Iran Press TV Latest] US President Barack Obama has promised to hold oil giant BP responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and has admitted that the US was short of the technology to deal with such a crisis. "Make no mistake -- BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance," he said during a news conference at the White House on Thursday. Obama, however, added that BP will "be paying a lot of damages, and we're going to stay on them on that". He also announced the suspension of two planned oil explorations off the coast of Alaska. Earlier, a panel of US scientists found that between 12,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil is leaking into the gulf waters everyday. Independent scientists, however, maintain that at least 70,000 barrel of oil is gushing into water a day. Meanwhile, Democratic sources say the Obama administration has fired the head of the US Minerals Management Service. The move was in response to blistering criticism over the federal government's lax oversight of BP and the rest of the offshore oil industry. The decision about Elizabeth Birnbaum, who has run the service in the Interior Department since July 2009, is among the announcements made by President Obama on Thursday. Obama's response to the five-week-old spill has prompted growing criticism about his leadership. Posted by: Fred 2010-05-28 |
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