MMS chief Elizabeth Birnbaum ousted, officials say

[The Northerner]

Source: Washington Post

Under intense pressure to show that President Obama is taking action on the oil spill crisis, White House officials on Thursday made clear that the top oil regulator at the Department of Interior had been forced out.

Elizabeth Birnbaum, the director of the U.S. Minerals Management Service, was given the opportunity to work elsewhere in the government but resigned instead, officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, in order to talk candidly about a personnel change, moments after Birnbaum's boss, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, praised her as "a strong and effective person and leader" and said she "resigned today on her own terms and on her own volition."

In a joint statement with Salazar, Birnbaum said she was "hopeful that the reforms that the Secretary and the Administration are undertaking will resolve the flaws in the current system that I inherited."

The conflicting messages came as the crisis consumed attention in Washington, where Obama held his first news conference since the spill began, and in the gulf, where the company and the government continued frantic attempts to cut off the flow of oil.

The Minerals Management Service has been faulted for lax oversight in the wake of the mammoth spill. Some lawmakers said Birnbaum's ouster, while welcomed, did not go far enough.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052703302.html

[Iliyah]

1. Dang

I see the corporate media who knows the facts is trying to dis-inform. Family who live there on the gulf coast tells me that the government has been there 24/7 trying and keep the areas clean, which is hard to do, but I do understand the anger, but they are there! One of the absolute things they have to do is stop the gusher, stop it totally!