On May 21, President Obama’s official spokesperson, Robert Gibbs, made an amazing admission at press conference regarding the BP’s massive oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gibbs: I would say relating to some of the earlier questioning, we’ve asked them [BP] to provide more public data on air and water quality, and we asked them 10 days ago and reiterated in a letter yesterday to provide video footage of what’s happening 5,000 feet underneath the sea.
Reporter: Why didn’t you order them to do that rather than ask them?
Gibbs: Because it’s—you can’t do that from (sic) a private company.
This brief exchange shows who is really in charge. While the U.S. government rules over the people, the corporate capitalists rule over the government.
Even as BP criminally inflicts great damage on the people and the environment, the property rights of the giant monopolies take precedence over all other considerations. This is why the Obama administration has refused to take charge of the disaster site. The government states only that BP has the needed “expertise.” Yet, BP’s record is dreadful. It is the company that led the botched containment efforts after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, allowing 11 million barrels of oil to pollute the ocean and kill wildlife.
Here’s more proof: On May 21, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to BP telling it to stop using the extremely toxic Corexit “dispersant.” Dispersants are chemicals intended to break up oil and cause it to sink below the surface. Corexit’s use is untested at such a depth and in such quantities.
The day after receiving EPA’s letter, BP wrote back, refusing the government’s directive and saying, “we continue to use it.” BP has already poured 800,000 gallons of Corexit into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20.
Despite the spreading catastrophe, as waves of oil now wash over wildlife and wetlands, the Obama administration, the Coast Guard and other federal agencies continue to bow to BP’s interests.
