Nelson: Obama should take over spill fix if BP fails Wednesday

The Obama administration has been under pressure to do more
– possibly even remove BP from the process – with critics charging that
the oil company has been given too much leeway in organizing the
response to and cleanup of the spill. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
suggested over the weekend that the administration could push BP aside
if its response wasn’t adequate.

But the White House has since
backed away from that possibility, saying it is reliant on the
company’s equipment, technology and expertise to cap the well.

The
company will attempt a procedure today — if conditions are right — that
would pump heavy mud and then cement into ruptured pipelines, in a bid
to clog and halt the spill. It’s seen as a potentially risky operation
that could potentially make the leak worse, and BP executives have not
guaranteed success.

Nelson also called for heads to roll at
the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the government agency that
regulates offshore drilling.

“I think the president is going to
have to have Secretary Salazar clean house in the Minerals Management
Service, which has had such a cozy, incestuous relationship with the
oil industry,” he said, “and basically let the oil industry rule the
roost.”