Obama Administration Insists They are In Charge of Oil Spill

President Obama's director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy says the White House calls the shots when it comes to the care and clean up of the Gulf oil spill. "Make no mistake about it, the government is in charge. BP comes to the government and gets permission to take the steps they take," Carol Browner told Fox & Friends anchor Steve Doocy during an interview Tuesday.

Millions and millions of gallons of oil have been spewing into Gulf waters since the April 20th Deepwater rig explosion killed 11 people and sank to the bottom of the ocean setting off a chain of events that have been detrimental to the Gulf Coast states’ livelihood both economically and environmentally. Each measure, the most recent being the "top kill" procedure, BP has taken to stop the oil leak has failed. Work is underway to drill two relief wells which the government hopes will be a permanent fix to the problem. But Browner is not getting too excited about the relief wells until the final results are in. "There are no guarantees here…There's a plan in place which the government has reviewed which we think is the most responsible way of proceeding, which is to dig not one relief well but to dig two relief wells so that we have redundancies in the system." Browner told Fox & Friends the first relief well drilling is slightly ahead of schedule but since the task is taking place at a depth that has never been undertaken, BP hopes to have it completed and working by the August deadline.

Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal has been asking the federal government for almost over a month for federal support to build sand berms or barrier islands along the Louisiana coast to stop the oil from coming ashore or from reaching wetlands and harming Louisiana wildlife. But the Obama administration is not convinced this plan will work and has only approved six berm sites with either BP or the Federal Government's Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund paying for the project. President Obama's point man on the oil spill, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen will be in New Orleans Tuesday reviewing data on what role the berms can play in containing the oil. Browner said on Fox & Friends if Allen determines the berms are needed then the federal government will make sure BP picks up the costs.