In his speech today on the Gulf Coast oil spill, President Obama criticized the oil companies for their “ridiculous spectacle” during this week’s congressional hearings, during which Obama said they were “falling over each other to point the finger of blame on somebody else.”
Obama said that he “did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter.”
“It is pretty clear that the system failed,” he said, “and it failed badly. For that, there’s enough responsibility to go around. And all parties should be willing to accept it. That includes, by the way, the federal government.”
Obama continued: “For too long, for a decade or more, there’s been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill.”
“That cannot, and will not, happen anymore,” he said.