Carper Reacts to President Obama’s Address on Gulf Oil Spill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement reacting to President Obama’s address on the Gulf oil spill: 

"I appreciate hearing directly from President Obama tonight about the efforts he and his administration are taking to stop the Gulf oil spill, clean up the mess from this disaster, help make the people and communities harmed by this disaster whole again, and take steps to ensure that this type of disaster doesn’t occur again.  Like the American people, I know the President is not personally responsible for this disaster and as much as he would like to, he can’t wave a magic wand and make everything better overnight.  But at the same time, we all want to hear directly from the President about what he’s doing to address this crisis, what key lessons the Administration is learning from this disaster, and how we should move forward.

"I welcome the President’s call for Congress to pass clean energy and clean air legislation this year.  If there is any silver-lining that we can take from this devastating spill, I hope that it will be a wake-up call for America to get serious about pursuing clean, renewable sources of energy right here at home.  

"I also support the President’s call for the creation of an independent escrow fund to ensure that BP and the other parties responsible for the cost of this disaster continue to pay claims in the future.  This is something my Democratic colleagues and I called for earlier this week – and I look forward to exploring how such a fund might work at a hearing I am chairing tomorrow. 

"I also support the President’s call to move offshore wind permitting away from the Mineral Management Service and to the Secretary of Interior’s office.  I would hate for industries like Bluewater Wind in Delaware to be stifled because of British Petroleum’s negligence." 

"While this spill is a tragedy of epic proportions, it is also a teachable moment.  In the coming weeks and months we will learn more about what went wrong, how it can be prevented and how we can improve our response to future man-made and natural disasters.  As I like to say, if it isn’t perfect, make it better.  That is our challenge as we move forward."