- August 04, 2010
The Obama administration claims it has been on top of the Gulf oil spill disaster since “day one.” Here’s a look at what the president and administration have been doing every day since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, triggering the massive spill.
The Obama administration claims it has been on top of the Gulf oil spill disaster since “day one.” Here’s a look at what the president and administration have been doing every day since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, triggering the massive spill. The following daily updates are based on a review of White House schedules, news releases and news coverage and do not cover every activity in the Gulf or in Washington:
Aug. 4
In the Gulf: BP claimed a key milestone Wednesday in the effort to plug its blown-out well as a government report said much of the spilled oil is gone, heartening officials who have taken heat during the tricky cleanup but leaving some Gulf Coast residents still skeptical. BP reported that mud forced down the well overnight was pushing the crude back down to its source for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers.And a federal report being released Wednesday indicated that only about a quarter of the spilled oil remains in the Gulf, with the rest having been contained, cleaned up or otherwise disappeared.
At the White House: President Obama applauded the headway that has been made to stop the worst U.S. oil spill, telling union officials in Washington that the Gulf of Mexico operation is “finally close to coming to an end.” He said people’s lives “have been turned upside down” as a result of the April 20 BP oil spill, but said he was heartened by indications the spill is, at last, being brought under control.
Aug. 3
In the Gulf: Crews prepared to pump mud into the blown-out well, provided a test on the process is successful. Meanwhile, BP announced it had created a new team to accelerate compensation to Gulf businesses.
At the White House: President Obama signed a law reducing disparities between crack and cocaine prison sentences. He was hosting a meeting with “young African leaders” in the East Room of the White House Tuesday afternoon.
Aug. 2
In the Gulf: Crews prepared to test whether they could move forward with a plan to pump mud and other material into the blown-out well on the Gulf of Mexico floor. The process known as a “static kill” was being considered as BP neared completion on a pair of relief wells, long seen as the way to choke off the leak for good.
At the White House: President Obama delivered a speech in Atlanta outlining his commitment to ending the war in Iraq.
Aug. 1
In the Gulf: Congressional investigators said the Coast Guard routinely approved requests made by BP to use chemical dispersants to break up the oil slicks in the Gulf despite a federal order to use the chemicals sparingly.
At the White House: President Obama played basketball with White House staff members at Fort McNair.
July 31
In the Gulf:Tropical Storm Bonnie left crews working to plug the Gulf oil gusher a little memento that is expected to push their work back about a day. Crews found debris in the bottom of the relief well that ultimately will be used to plug the leak for good, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Friday. The government’s point man on the spill said the sediment settled in the relief well last week when crews popped in a plug to keep it safe ahead of Bonnie.
At the White House: President Obama has no public events scheduled.
July 30
In the Gulf: BP’s new boss says it’s time for a “scaleback” in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Federal officials say there is no way the crude could reach the East Coast. And fishing areas are starting to reopen. There were several signs Friday that the era of thousands of oil-skimming boats and hazmat-suited beach crews is giving way to long-term efforts to clean up, compensate people for their losses and understand the damage wrought. Local fishermen are doubtful, however, and say oil remains a bigger problem than BP and the federal government are letting on.
Other people contend the impact of the spill has been overblown, given that little oil remains on the Gulf surface, but Bob Dudley, who heads BP’s oil spill recovery and will take over as CEO in October, rejected those claims.
At the White House:President Obama headed to the heart of the U.S. auto industry to push an important election-year claim: his administration’s unpopular auto industry bailout has turned into an economic good-news story.
July 29
In the Gulf:Even when the oily sheen starts fading from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, it manages to become bad news for fishermen. Many of those whose fisheries were shut down by the oil spill have found work skimming oil, putting out boom or ferrying cleanup supplies through BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program. But as the crude sinks, evaporates or breaks down, they may be left with nothing to do but wait for their claim checks to arrive and for their fishing grounds to reopen.
At the White House: President Obama delivered an education reform speech Thursday morning at the National Urban League’s 100th Anniversary Convention in the nation’s capital.Later in the morning, the president met with his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the afternoon, he delivered remarks and signed the Tribal Law and Order Act in the East Room.
July 28
In the Gulf: With 100 days having passed since the April 20 explosion that triggered the massive leak, oil has mostly stopped collecting at the surface. Scientists, though, are unsure how much is left and where it all is.
At the White House: President Obama was heading to New York City for a taping of “The View” and two Democratic fundraisers.
July 27
In the Gulf: BP named its first American CEO, Robert Dudley, who is set to replace Tony Hayward on Oct. 1. The firm also announced a record $17 billion loss in the last quarter.
At the White House: President Obama spoke in the Rose Garden about the Afghanistan war, addressing the leak of thousands of sensitive documents by the online group Wikileaks.org.
July 26
In the Gulf: More details emerged about the future of embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward. Sky News reported that Hayward will step down from BP’s top post in October and take a job with TNK-BP, the company’s joint venture in Russia.
At the White House: President Obama delivered a public statement urging GOP senators to clear the way for a vote on Democrat-backed campaign finance legislation.
July 25
In the Gulf: Reports surfaced that BP CEO Tony Hayward would be replaced, likely by Managing Director Bob Dudley. The move comes after Hayward was persistently criticized for his comments on and handling of the BP spill. Meanwhile, crews working to permanently seal the Gulf of Mexico oil leak were back on the scene Sunday after evacuating ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie. Though the storm fizzled, crews are working hard to finish a relief well before more bad weather disrupts the procedure.
At the White House: President Obama played golf at Andrews Air Force Base.
July 24
In the Gulf: Ships steamed to safer waters and coastal workers packed up oil removal operations as remnants of Tropical Storm Bonnie rolled into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday.
By daybreak, all but a handful of the ships working at the well site were expected to be out of the way of the storm. The mechanical cap that has mostly contained the oil for eight days was left closed, and there was no worry the storm could cause any problems with the plug because it’s nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) below the ocean’s surface.
At the White House President Obama has no public events scheduled.
July 23
In the Gulf:Ships monitoring BP’s broken oil well stood fast Friday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bonnie blew toward the spill site, threatening to force a full evacuation that would leave engineers clueless about whether a makeshift cap on the gusher was holding. Vessels connected to deep-sea robots equipped with cameras and seismic devices would be among the last to flee and would ride out the rough weather if possible, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.
At the White House:President Obama proclaimed a week of “enormous progress” in fixing economic problems and cracking down on Wall Street, prodding the Senate to do even more by passing tax credits for small businesses. Obama went before the cameras to praise a trio of matters he signed into law this week — an overhaul of financial regulations, an effort to shrink wasteful government payments, and an extension of unemployment benefits for millions of jobless people.
July 22
In the Gulf: Dozens of ships were preparing Thursday to pull out of the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm brewed in the Caribbean, halting deep-sea efforts to plug BP’s ruptured oil well.
Though the rough weather was hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the spill site, officials ordered technicians to suspend work Wednesday as they would need several days to clear the area. The government’s oil spill chief was waiting to see how the storm developed before deciding whether to order the ships to evacuate.
At the White House: President Obama will sign into law a bill that would require U.S. agencies to redouble their efforts to identify and recover billions of dollars lost annually to wasteful spending. He’s also meeting with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
July 21
In the Gulf:Tropical rainstorms moving toward the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday threatened to shut down undersea efforts to seal BP’s ruptured well, interrupting work just as engineers get close to plugging the leak with mud and cement. A weather system brewing in the Caribbean prompted crews to temporarily cork a relief tunnel deep beneath the sea floor, BP vice president Kent Wells said Wednesday afternoon. The storm is still hundreds of miles away and may never reach the area, but the oil giant doesn’t want to risk damaging BP’s best bet at permanently sealing the well.
At the White House: President Obama signs financial overhaul bill into law. Receives oil spill briefing.
July 20
In the Gulf: The government’s oil spill chief tried to tamp down fears Tuesday that BP’s capped well is buckling under the pressure, saying that seepage detected along the sea floor less than two miles away is coming from an older well no longer in production.Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen also said at least five leaks have been discovered around the well machinery, but he dismissed them as “very small drips” — “not unlike an oil leak you might have in your car.”
At the White House: President Obama welcomes British Prime Minister David Cameron for his first visit.
July 19
In the Gulf: After detecting possible seepage near the blown-out well on the Gulf floor, the federal government on Monday allowed BP to keep its new well cap in place for another day. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the firm is monitoring for any new leaks at the site.
At the White House: President Obama, in a morning statement to the press, urged Senate Republicans to support a jobless benefits extension coming up for a vote. He later was hosting the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury in honor of the team’s 2009 championship.
July 18
In the Gulf: BP said it wants to keep using a new well cap to prevent any more oil from leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. However, administration pointman Thad Allen said the day before that the plan was to use the cap to continue pumping oil to the surface after testing is complete. Allen will make the final call.
At the White House: The Obama family returned to Washington after their vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine.
July 17
In the Gulf: Engineers kept vigil Saturday over the massive cap holding back oil from BP’s busted Gulf well, their eyes glued to monitors in a faraway control room that displayed pressure readings, temperature gauges and underwater images. Their round-the-clock work deciphering a puzzle of data from undersea robots and instruments at the wellhead is helping BP and the government determine whether the cap is holding tight as the end of a critical 48-hour testing window approaches. Signs so far have been promising but inconclusive.
At the White House: President Obama is on a family vacation in Maine.
July 16
In the Gulf: BP says there are no signs that its busted Gulf of Mexico well has started leaking underground more than a day after it was capped. Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said on a Friday evening conference call that engineers are closely monitoring pressure as well as the temperature and sounds around the well.
At the White House:Cheered by a key victory in Congress and good news from the Gulf oil spill zone, a relaxed President Obama began a weekend holiday Friday on a sun-dappled mountain peak overlooking the rocky Atlantic coast.
July 15
In the Gulf: BP says oil from its broken well has stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April. The announcement Thursday came after company officials said all valves had been shut on a new cap over the busted well in an experiment to stop the spill.
At the White House: President Obama delivered remarks at a groundbreaking ceremony in Michigan.
July 14
In the Gulf: As BP waited for the all-clear to resume testing of its new well cap, scientists reportedly found that the spill was beginning the affect the food chain in the Gulf by killing some organisms and triggering others to multiply in the tainted water.
At the White House: President Obama was scheduled to attend a meeting about his administration’s cybersecurity efforts. He was set to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Democratic leaders later in the day.
July 13
In the Gulf: BP decided to delay tests on its new well cap after government officials called for more analysis. The oil firm is hoping to use the cap to be able to stop the oil flow for the first time since the April 20 explosion that triggered the leak.
At the White House: President Obama unveiled his new strategy for fighting HIV/AIDS, calling for reducing new infections by 25 percent over the next five years.
July 12
In the Gulf: BP planned to attach a new cap on Monday to the blown-out oil well on the Gulf floor. After attaching the 150,000-pound device, BP planned to test it to see whether it would be able to plug the oil.
At the White House: President Obama was hosting Dominican Republican President Leonel Fernandez at the White House.
July 11
In the Gulf: BP was in the process of replacing a leaking cap with what they claimed would be a better containment system. Until that system is in place, though, oil could be seen spewing out of the hole into the Gulf of Mexico — BP estimated it would take between three and six days to finish the operation.
At the White House: President Obama played golf at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
July 10
In the Gulf:Undersea robots manipulated by engineers a mile above will begin work Saturday removing the containment cap over the gushing well head in the Gulf of Mexico to replace it with a tighter-fitting cap that could funnel all the oil to tankers at the surface. If all goes according to plan, the tandem of the tighter cap and the tankers could keep all the oil from polluting the fragile Gulf as soon as Monday. But it’s only a temporary solution. It won’t plug the busted well, the leak will get worse before it gets better — and it remains uncertain that it will succeed. As much as 5 million gallons could gush out between the old cap’s removal and the new cap’s installation and connection to a ship.
At the White House: President Obama has no public events scheduled.
July 9
In the Gulf: The first of two relief wells being drilled to stop the Gulf oil gusher could be done by the end of the month, BP officials say, but if that doesn’t succeed, one backup being considered is transferring the crude to non-producing underwater wells that are miles away. BP would run the flow through pipelines across the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration’s point man on the crisis.
At the White House: President Obama is wrapping up a two-day swing through Missouri and Nevada with a speech on clean energy.
July 8
In the Gulf: A relief well being drilled deep into the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico to shut down the gushing oil well could be completed ahead of a long-set deadline of mid-August only if conditions are ideal. National Incident Commander and retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Thursday that the relief well is expected to intercept and penetrate the Deepwater Horizon well pipe about 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) below sea level within seven to 10 days.
At the White House: President Obama traveled to Kansas City, Mo., to talk about the economy and delivered speeches at back-to-back fundraisers for Senate candidate Robin Carnahan before heading for Las Vegas.
July 7
In the Gulf: Oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in the 1990s.
source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/28/disaster-gulf-days-counting/