Gulf Oil Spill: Obama Demands End to 'Fingerpointing'

President Obama decried the "ridiculous spectacle" of fingerpointing as different parties attempt to fix blame in the Gulf oil spill, but he also said the federal government must share responsibility for the problem -- and he ordered a "top to bottom reform" for one oversight agency involved.

For too long, the president said, the federal Minerals Management Service has enjoyed a "cozy relationship" with the oil and gas companies it is supposed to watch over in their leasing and drilling operations. "That cannot and will not happen anymore," he said.

In remarks from the White House Rose Garden, the president said he shared the "anger and frustration" of Americans living in coastal states who are threatened by "potential devastation" to their beaches, fisheries and wildlife from the spilling oil. He said he would not "rest or be satisfied until the leak is stopped at its source" and an oil slick said to be some 3,650 square miles in size is contained and cleaned up.

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig on April 20 killed 11 workers and broke a pipeline, allowing oil to surge up from wells nearly a mile deep on the sea floor, forming a huge slick in the Gulf of Mexico. Estimates of the amount of escaping oil, gas and brine range from 5,000 barrels a day -- more than 200,000 gallons -- up to 70,000 barrels. BP's attempt to cap the largest well with a four-story tall containment box failed, and the company now hopes to encase the gusher with a smaller "top hat" device, or stanch it by inserting a 6-inch tube that could siphon oil from the broken 21-inch pipeline.

Obama said he did "not appreciate what I considered to be the ridiculous spectacle" of executives from BP, Transocean, the rig owner, and Halliburton, supplier of a cement pipeline plug, "falling over each other to point the fingers of blame at somebody else" in testimony before Congress earlier this week. "I will not tolerate more fingerpointing or irresponsibility," he said sternly. "There is enough responsibility to go around, and all parties should be willing to accept it." he said. "And that includes, by the way, the federal government."

The Obama administration has gone to great lengths to assure the public that it is on top of the situation -- all the while insisting the ultimate responsibility rests with BP. On Thursday, the White House said the government has dispatched 13,000 workers to protect coastal state shorelines and wildlife, provided booms to contain the drifting slick, and set up 14 staging areas from Louisiana to Florida to protect beaches and shore facilities.

The New York Times reported Friday that the MMS -- which the Interior Department wants to reform by splitting it into two divisions -- permitted BP and other oil companies to drill in the Gulf without first getting clearance from another agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees threats to endangered species. The go-aheads included one for the Deepwater Horizon, the Times said.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday asked congressional leaders for input on his plan to break up the MMS, with one bureau responsible solely for overseeing regulation of safety procedures, and the other collecting oil and gas royalties. Too often over the last decade, the president said it appears as if drilling permits were "issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies."

Obama called for "prompt action" in Congress on an economic package he has submitted to provide relief to affected communities in Gulf states.