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Axelrod downplays prospect of firing BP from spill response role
White House senior adviser David Axelrod defended BP's response to the Gulf oil spill on Monday and signaled it should not be pushed aside.
“Does anybody really believe that BP is dragging their feet in solving
this problem?" Axelrod said in an interview on MSNBC.
"The fact is they have a bigger interest than anyone in trying to shut off this leak,” he added.
Axelrod's comments come a day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, expressing frustration at BP’s response to date, threatened to “push them out of the way appropriately.”
“If we find that they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately and we'll move forward to make sure that everything is being done to protect the people of the Gulf Coast, the ecological values of the Gulf Coast, and the values of the American people,” Salazar added.
But Axelrod told MSNBC that while the U.S. Coast Guard is in “effective control of the process,” the administration remains reliant on BP to stop the oil flowing from the company’s damaged undersea well.
“BP has the equipment and expertise that’s necessary to work on this issue. They have the equipment that is designed to deal with this very unique kind of problem,” Axelrod said.
He said the administration is putting “massive resources” behind the containment effort but added, “We have to take advantage of BP’s ... expertise and their equipment there.”
“We would be foolish not to. No one has that kind of equipment but these major oil companies,” Axelrod said.
The administration in the past has criticized BP over the spill, especially after congressional hearings in which BP and executives from other companies involved in the oil rig explosion that led to the spill were seen as blaming one another for the disaster.
In the interview with MSNBC, Axelrod didn’t entirely spare BP from criticism. “We haven’t been happy with their transparency,” he noted.
