E2-Wire

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said Obama should send more military assets to the Gulf.

President Barack Obama on Friday will make his third trip to the Gulf Coast since the oil spill began.

It's unlikely that engineers will be able to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico until August, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) suggested Thursday.

Nelson, whose home state of Florida is preparing for oil to reach the beaches of Pensacola, said he has no faith in BP's efforts to end the flow of oil from its damaged deepwater well until relief wells are completed in August.

"Personally, I don't," Nelson said during an appearance on CNN when asked if he has any faith in BP to contain the flow of oil. "I think we're looking at this until August."

President Barack Obama won a defense of his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from one GOP congressman on Thursday.

Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican lawmaker from Texas, said that people were expecting too much from the president in his ability to react to the ongoing spill into the Gulf.

"I'm a pretty big critic of the president," Paul said during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" on the Fox Business Network, "but I just don't see the justification for coming down hard on the president."

White House energy and climate adviser Carol Browner is emphasizing that federal officials are calling the shots in BP’s effort to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher.

“It is important, I think, for people to understand that BP cannot do anything without the administration’s agreement, and so if an idea is put forward that our brain trust, our scientists, are not comfortable with, they are told that. They do not proceed,” she told National Public Radio.

“We are not partners,” she added in the interview, broadcast Thursday morning, “because at the end of the day, we get to decide what happens.”

Oil companies and environmentalists scrambling to shape post-spill policy

The New York Times explores lobbying efforts by both sides on the question of drilling restrictions and rules.

“Environmentalists and their supporters in Congress, hoping to seize the political momentum, are working to push through measures to extend bans on new offshore drilling, strengthen safety and environmental safeguards and raise to $10 billion or more the cap on civil liability for an oil producer in a spill,” the Times reports.

Over on our main site, my colleagues Puneet Kollipara and Kevin Bogardus look at BP and other oil companies picking up the tab for travel by federal officials, largely under the Bush administration.

They report:

A review by The Hill of gift reports on file at the Office of Government Ethics shows oil and gas companies picked up the tab for tours by federal officials of offshore oil rigs in the Gulf along with oil facilities in Alaska.

Companies and industry trade groups took care of food and lodging for officials and also paid for them to attend business conferences. The records cover gift reports filed by employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Interior Department and the Homeland Security Department, which all have dealings with oil and gas companies.

The bulk of the trips occurred under President George W. Bush’s administration. Only two industry-funded trips took place during the first nine months of President Barack Obama’s administration.

The Obama administration on Wednesday stepped up efforts to show that it is toughening offshore drilling oversight by announcing that it will require oil and gas companies to submit more information about their projects before proceeding.

The administration made the announcement through Bob Abbey, the newly installed head of the beleaguered Minerals Management Service, as it seeks to highlight reforms in the wake of the BP oil spill.

Among the new requirements: exploration and development plans previously approved using a waiver from full environmental studies — called a “categorical exclusion" — must now resubmit their plans.

Vice President Joe Biden said oil giant BP has “done the best they could” to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Biden — in an appearance on the “Charlie Rose” show to be broadcast Wednesday night — also said that he’s in “constant” contact with President Barack Obama about the disaster.

“When I sit down and talk to him [Obama] about this, which is constant ... he talks with such empathy about this is not just merely an economic catastrophe. This is potentially going to ruin a way of life. This is a unique bayou culture that's down there,” Biden said.