Elizabeth Birnbaum Out As Head of Oil Agency; Spill Is Worst in U.S. History

Elizabeth Birnbaum, the head of the Minerals Management Service that oversees offshore oil and drilling, has left the agency. Birnbaum is a former Democratic congressional aide who was installed to run the troubled agency in July of 2009.

Although the Associated Press reported that President Obama had fired Birnbaum, the president said at a Thursday press conference that he had learned of her resignation from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar earlier that day.

"I don't know the circumstances in which this occurred," Obama said. "I can tell you what I said to Ken Salazar, which is that we have to make sure, if we are going forward with domestic oil production, that the federal agency charged with overseeing its safety and security is operating at the highest level. And I want people in there who are operating at the highest level."

Birnbaum released a statement Thursday thanking the president for appointing her to his administration and pointedly saying she "inherited" the problems at MMS.

"I am hopeful that the reforms that the Secretary and Administration are undertaking will resolve the flaws in the current system that I inherited," Birnbaum said.

Rep Nick Rahall (D-W.V..), the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, called Birnbaum's departure "window dressing," and said the agency needs a complete overhaul. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed Rahall's comments later at her weekly press conference. "I think that's probably right," Pelosi said.

The news of her departure comes on the same day that a U.S. Geological Survey official estimated that between 17 million and 39 million gallons of oil have spilled into the water so far at the site of an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, according to The Washington Post. The amount far exceeds the 11 million gallons that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster, making it the worst such catastrophe in U.S. history.

In a glimmer of good news, BP engineers continued their "top kill" attempt to stem the leak, and early signs are encouraging. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is overseeing the effort, told CNN that the procedure "is going as planned, and it is moving along as everyone had hoped." The procedure involves pumping mud into the well's damaged blowout preventer in an effort to plug the leak.

Birnbaum had been scheduled to testify before the House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill Thursday morning, but did not appear for her testimony. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced at the hearing that Birnbaum had resigned her position voluntarily, but the Associated Press reports that President Obama removed her from her job.

Birnbam's departure comes as the Obama administration hears increasing criticism from local Louisiana officials and others that the federal response to the spill continues to be "too little, too late."

A USA Today/Gallup poll today showed that Americans are also panning with the Obama administration's handling of the disaster. Fifty-three percent of Americans rate Obama's performance as poor or very poor while 43 percent consider it good or very good.

Chris Oynes, a deputy to Birnbaum, announced earlier this month that he will leave the agency next week. Oynes has previously agreed to give BP an exemption from doing a full environmental impact statement for the well that has been spewing at least 5,000 barrels (about 200,000 gallons) of oil into the gulf every day for more than a month.

Several weeks ago, Salazar announced that the MMS will be broken up into at least two separate agencies, with one overseeing the safety operations of offshore drilling, and the other negotiating the prices that oil companies must pay to lease the rights to drill in waters off American shores. Salazar also appointed an external agency to investigate the causes of the BP oil spill. Previously, the MMS had been tasked with finding the root causes of the catastrophe.