In my opinion it is President OBAMA who should face criminal charges. Imagine he had the audacity to criticize Bush about Katrina.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... spill.html

President Obama: BP could face criminal charges over Gulf oil spill
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, June 1st 2010, 2:38 PM


NASA

Oil from the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling platform is seen from space off the coast of Louisiana with a portion flowing south from the accident site Monday.

President Obama signalled Tuesday that the oil giant could face criminal charges of negligence or malfeasance in the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

"We have an obligation to investigate what went wrong," Obama said.

"If our laws were broken, leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledge is that we will bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe and the people of the Gulf region."

Attorney General Eric Holder was in Louisiana meeting with state and federal prosecutors about the April 20 oil rig explosion, which sent millions of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf.

In a small but telling sign that things may be turning ominous for BP, the administration said it no longer wants its officials to share a podium with BP at the daily press briefing in Louisiana.

BP has made a series of failed attempts to plug the blown-out well, and now admits it will probably gush until a relief well is completed in August.

The hurricane season begins Tuesday, adding another wild card, and tides are forecast to bring the oil slick onto tourist beaches in Mississippi and Alabama later this week.

BP began a new attempt this week to cap the well and siphon the oil to a surface ship. An earlier try last month was not successful and hopes were not high that the new bid would work.

Set against the ongoing and growing catastrophe, there is increasing skepticism about how forthcoming BP has been and whether there were attempts at a cover-up.

Bloomberg News reported that BP declared in its permit application to drill in the Gulf that it was prepared to handle a spill 10 times larger than the current one.

The Justice Department has ordered BP not to shred any documents.

"We're cooperating fully with all inquiries, and we're doing everything we need to do and more in terms of preserving records," BP spokesman Andrew Gowers said Monday.

Obama spoke to reporters after meeting with the co-chairs of a new independent oil spill commission, former Democratic Florida Sen. Bob Graham and former Bush-era Environmental Protection Agency chief William Reilly.

"They have my full support to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor," Obama said.

"If the laws on our books are insufficient to prevent such a spill, the laws must change. If oversight was inadequate to enforce these laws, oversight has to be reformed."

He stressed that BP will be held accountable for financial losses from what he called the "greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history."