Mica casts blame on Obama administration for spill

The top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday sought to lay blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill squarely at the feet of the Obama administration.

“All of the actions to ensure safety measures were put in place have to be attributed to the Obama administration,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) at a committee hearing.

The panel’s hearing is one of roughly a half-dozen this week about the fatal April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent spill. Mica noted the Interior Department’s approval of BP’s drilling plan under the current administration.

“I am not going to point fingers at BP, the private industry, when it is government’s responsibility to set the standards, to do the inspections,” Mica added. His comments come a day after the Senate’s top Republican also criticized the administration’s oversight of offshore drilling.

But Mica’s comments drew a quick rebuke from committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.). “I think it is inflammatory to call it the Obama oil spill. And wrong,” Oberstar said, noting that approvals were given early in the Obama administration by career staff.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday acknowledged lapses in federal oversight, and has announced several steps in the wake of the spill to toughen environmental and safety reviews.

Such steps include a plan to divide Interior’s Minerals Management Service, which regulates offshore drilling and collects billions of dollars in royalties, by creating a stand-alone environment and safety agency.

But Salazar and the White House have also gone to great lengths to emphasize that Salazar quickly launched efforts to reform the troubled offshore agency when he took office, including issuance of new ethics standards.