Obama: government fully prepared to help communities coping with worsening oil spill

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Obama: government fully prepared to help

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is reassuring Gulf Coast communities that federal government is “fully prepared” to meet its responsibilities to them as a massive oil spill becomes a worsening environmental disaster.

The president said the oil company BP is ultimately responsible for the crisis. But he sought to show that he and his team were in command, trying to counter any perception that his government has been slow to respond. Obama has dispatched top federal officials to the scene; federal assets have also been deployed.

Speaking in the Rose Garden, Obama said he has ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to review what happened and report back within 30 days. That review will examine what safeguards should be put in place to prevent future spills.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top adviser to President Barack Obama says no new oil drilling will be authorized until authorities learn what caused the explosion of the rig Deepwater Horizon.

David Axelrod also defended the administration’s response to the April 20 accident, saying “we had the Coast Guard in almost immediately.”

He deflected comparisons with the government’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, telling ABC’s “Good Morning America” that such speculation “is always the case in Washington whenever something like this happens.”

Obama recently lifted a drilling moratorium for many offshore areas, including the Atlantic and Gulf areas. But Axelrod said Friday “no additional drilling has been authorized and none will until we find out what has happened here.”