BP plunges and the White House now wields the stick

BP plunges and the White House now wields the stick. The U.S. Department of justice has even opened a civil and criminal investigation to find the responsibilities of the oil spill, announced the Minister of justice, Eric Holder. The latter, who conducted yesterday his first visit in the Gulf of the Mexico to evaluate the extent of the damage, said that the United States does not stop "until justice is made". On the other hand, on the eve of the new attempt of clogging, US President Barack Obama he met yesterday, for the first time, the two co-chairs of the independent inquiry committee, Democrat Bob Graham and Republican William Reilly, the former boss of the Agency for the protection of the environment (EPA) under George Bush Senior, named there are about ten days. The Commission is to investigate the causes of the leak and the functioning of the Federal agencies overseeing the drilling. "We are in the obligation to investigate what went wrong, and to determine what reforms are needed to ensure that we live ever a crisis of this magnitude," said yesterday the American President, recalling that this oil spill is now the worst environmental disaster in our history ".

After the failure of the "Top kill" procedure, which it is clear that the Secretary of energy, Steven Chu, ordered the interruption in the light of the risks, the White House seems determined to increase the pressure on BP.

A hypothetical repair

"I think it is important that the American people realize that the leak could last some time." "We always knew that the best hope lies in the drilling of relief," said the Senior Advisor to the energy of Barack Obama, Carol Browner yesterday. While giving the green light to the new procedure of clogging, the White House wants to do everything to not create excessive hopes with an emphasis on the significant risks of the operation.

Named "Top and Cap", the operation, which started yesterday, is now cutting damaged pipelines there put a Bell of containment and siphoning crude oil to the surface. The installation of this funnel should have today said the BP Operations Manager, Doug Suttles. According to the British tanker, the chances of success of the manoeuvre would be higher than the "Top kill" operation that he had estimated between 60 and 70. But the White House insists on the fact that the real solution lies in the construction of two relief wells, not scheduled for completion before two months.

In the meantime this hypothetical remedy, the initiation of the investigation complicates the deal for BP. According to some observers, this could call into question its supply contracts of 2.2 billion with the Pentagon.

In the light of several testimonies, BP would have knowingly minimized, even shadowed the problems of security of the wells in the weeks that preceded the April 20 explosion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the oil group have even modified the design of the offending one week well only before the disaster for the authorization of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the Federal agency responsible for granting licences.

Other topics of tension between BP and the federal authorities are also the existence of underwater oil spill (disputed by the oil tanker) and the massive use of the chemical dispersant Corexit, which many scientists believe that it might be "worse than the disease" for the fauna and flora blowout.