Coast Guard commandant says BP is exercising all technical means to plug oil leak in Gulf

CG commandant: BP using all technical means it can

WASHINGTON — BP is exhausting every possibility to plug the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said Monday, indicating he couldn’t push the company aside even if he wanted to.

“To push BP out of the way, it would raise the question, to replace them with what?” Allen, who’s heading the government response to the spill, told reporters at a White House briefing.

The White House is facing increasing questions about why the government can’t exercise more control over the catastrophe as oil still spurts into the Gulf weeks after the drilling rig BP was leasing caught fire and sank.

None of BP’s attempts to stop the leak so far has succeeded.

Allen said federal law dictated that BP had to operate the cleanup, with the federal government overseeing its efforts.

“They’re exhausting every technical means possible to deal with that leak,” Allen said. “I am satisfied with the coordination that’s going on.”

He added: “There’s no reason to make a change” in leadership of the spill response.

Allen said the oil spill is an unprecedented event, and the government is defining its role in the response “as we go.” While the government has veto power over BP officials’ decisions as they try to stop the flow of oil, Allen said the government doesn’t have everything needed to solve the problem.

BP “owns the means of production,” he said. “We ask a lot of hard questions.”

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar suggested over the weekend that the government could intervene aggressively if BP wasn’t delivering. “If we find that they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ll push them out of the way appropriately,” Salazar had said.

Asked about that comment, Allen said, “That’s more of a metaphor.”

After the oil spill, President Barack Obama directed Salazar to conduct a 30-day safety review of the safety of offshore drilling. That report will be delivered to the president Thursday, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. Gibbs said Obama would discuss it and take questions from the media.