Speech, agreement with BP show Obama taking charge, congressmen say

UPDATED: Three Iowa congressmen had mixed reviews for President Obama's Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill, but agreed BP must be held accountable for the billions of dollars of cost associated with largest oil spill in the nation's history.

The president's Tuesday night speech indicated to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley that Obama is, perhaps belatedly, taking charge. Grassley defended the president's response against what he called unreasonable expectations.

The president can't be “expected to stick his finger in the well,” Grassley said June 16. “He shouldn't be blamed for things he can't do anything about.”

On the other hand, Grassley said the president can be blamed if he hasn't moved fast enough to take charge of the clean-up and recovery efforts.

“But it looks to me, based on his speech last night and his meeting with BP that he's doing that,” Grassley said.

First Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley, while supportive of Obama's efforts, thought he didn't provide a “clear answer and clear strategy.”

“I think the president restated his commitment to solving the crisis, but didn't say anything we haven't heard before,” Braley said.

“I would have been much more interested in hearing the specific steps his team is taking to stop the flow as quickly as possible and make sure the victims of the disaster are appropriately compensated and we get this oil, in its many forms, cleaned up as quickly as possible.”

More specifics would have been more re-assuring, Braley said.

Later, Braley, who is a member of a House panel that will question BP chief Tony Hayward June 17, called a tentative agreement calling for BP to put $20 billion in escrow to pay for claims resulting from the spill a “critical step in the right direction.”

“BP has repeatedly said they will honor all ‘legitimate' claims, but they never defined what they viewed as a legitimate claim,” he said. “This $20 billion is an important development, but in no way should it be viewed as a limit to BP's financial responsibility for this clean-up and its long-term impact.”

Sen. Tom Harkin also weighed in Wednesday, saying BP did the right thing in establishing the $20 billion escrow account. The Iowa Democrat Monday joined 54 of Senate Democrats in sending a letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward requesting the fund.

“Indeed, $20 billion may be a drop in the bucket when the total damage is finally assessed,” Harkin said. “But I hope it gives the residents of this area and industries affected some measure of confidence that their claims will be addressed.

The spill also underscores the benefits of “clean, home-grown energy like biofuels, wind and solar,” Harkin said. “We must do everything we can to increase production and use of these alternatives.”