Americans are growing unhappier by the day with BP’s efforts to clean up the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
[social_buttons]A new series of questions polled by USA Today/Gallup have highlighted Americans disfavour with how BP is going about the cleanup, who should be in charge and how much BP should be accountable for.
Americans are looking for someone to blame and BP is set front and centre in their sights, and they don’t care whether BP goes out of business in the process.
Tougher Consequences
Asked whether President has been tough enough in dealing with BP in regards to the oil spill, 71% said that he had not been tough enough, with only 20% saying he’d been dealing with them properly, and 3% who thought he’d been too tough on them.
On top of that many Americans want BP to pay out more and more to those affected by the oil spill, with 59% wanting them to pay all losses even if they go out of business in the process.
Not surprisingly President Obama has decided to finally come out and address for the first time the Administration-wide response to the oil spill. His video from the Oval Office is below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/Gh76oepKFc8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
The Cleanup and Blame
As to whether BP should be left in control of the cleanup, a growing 45% of Americans believe the federal government should be put in charge. Looking at the partisan split, liberals are more likely to want the federal government to take charge while conservatives want the cleanup left in the hands of BP. Moderates are, naturally, right in the middle.
Neither BP nor President Obama is receiving stellar ratings for their handling of the clean up. A total of 49% of Americans believe BP has done a “very poor” job of handling the oil spill up from 39%, a ten point growth in three weeks. On the same line 24% of Americans believe President Obama is has done a very poor job up from 19.
As for who is responsible for the oil spill, a whopping three out of four Americans believe BP is responsible a “great deal”, while 44% believe the federal agencies that regulate oil drilling are responsible a “great deal” and 37% believe they’re responsible a “fair amount.”
It will be a long time before we have all the facts as to what has happened, how it has been handled and the actual effects to the environment, but it is clear for the moment that American opinion is firmly against BP and the Government.
Source: USA Today/Gallup (1 and 2)
Image Source: White House
what about all us people, we want oil and travel and goods and heating and air con and all that comes from oil, oh and also what about intensive farming(use more resources(oil ect) to create less food(in terms of calories) it is unsustainable and we in the west are all responsible!