Both the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the future of clean energy were the subjects of President Obama’s first Oval Office Address on Tuesday night.
Obama, who has visited the Gulf Coast multiple times following the disaster, outlined his plan for the “battle” being waged in the Gulf.
Obama began by summarizing the April 20 explosion onboard the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig – where 11 workers were killed and 17 were injured.
According to Obama, BP should soon be capturing 90 percent of the oil gushing from the leak in the “coming weeks and days.”
And though no definitive date was given, but Obama also said BP would be drilling a relief well later in the summer to permanently stop the leak.
The president did not minimize the severity of the ongoing crisis.
“Because there has never been a leak this size at this depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology,” Obama said in the address.
Obama outlined his “battle plan” for the disaster – one that includes over 30,000 personnel working to clean up the spill, 17,000 National Guard members deployed along the Gulf Coast, and the development of barrier islands along the coast to stop oil from washing ashore.
Obama promised to restore the Gulf to its natural state before the disaster with a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan to be initiated as soon as possible.
“We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever’s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy,” Obama said.
Obama also issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in order to examine safety measures, and to examine corruption in the oil regulatory industry.
“The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years,” Obama said in the address.
Following the plan to restore the Gulf following the spill, Obama also spoke about America’s addiction to fossil fuels.
“We send nearly $1 billion of our wealth to foreign countries for their oil,” Obama said.
Obama used the oil spill to illustrate America’s need to break its dependence on fossil fuels, and promised to advance the transition to renewable sources of energy.
Some Pennsylvania politicians – like Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak – said he agrees with the efforts being made by the White House.
“I support President Obama’s call to hold corporations accountable and put our nation on a path to energy independence,” U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Joe Sestak said in a statement Tuesday.
Sestak continued with what he believes are some of the answers to the crisis in his statement.
“Further, it is time to come together as a nation to agree on a comprehensive, pragmatic plan that moves us towards energy independence. For too long we have put the oil companies ahead of our nation’s long-term economic and national security interests while turning a blind eye to the costs of unsupervised risk-taking. It is time to take the reasonable steps that hold corporations accountable and put our nation back on a path to prosperity,” Sestak said.
According to Tuesday’s Oval Office Address, Obama is scheduled to meet with the chairman of BP today to discuss the company’s responsibility in the oil spill.