FOX Good Day Philadelphia: Senator Says MMS Also To Blame For Spill

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Delaware Sen. Ted KAUFMAN tells Fox 29 that the federal government must be held partly accountable for the BP Gulf oil spill.

KAUFMAN told Fox 20 that the Minerals Management Service, part of the Interior Department, dropped the ball by not making sure its inspectors were at drilling sites.

President Barack Obama is back on the Gulf Coast on Friday as the oil disaster keeps growing.

BP said it will pay for the cleanup but it is not certain that BP can stop its well from leaking until August.

By then, new research shows the aftermath of the oil leak could reach our area and it may have a big impact on the ecology of the East Coast.

Simulations from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research show the spill as a massive event in six different scenarios.

KAUFMAN told Fox 29 he is deeply upset with the Gulf coast oil-leak disaster and he's also distressed that the current administration wanted to drill oil wells off the Delaware coast just weeks before the BP disaster.

"This is one of those classic examples where we made a lot of mistakes over the years and we are paying the price for it," he said.

"The federal government is not set up to deal with this. We should have had regulators out there."

KAUFMAN says the MMS must be held accountable.

"When you do this drilling, you have to have inspectors on the site. How did that ever happen?" KAUFMAN asked. "They just didn't have inspectors [from the MMS]."

He also said he remains opposed to drilling in our area.

"Back in March, I am a big supporter of President Obama but I came out against his idea of drilling offshore. The reason I gave was that, in Delaware, but also in New Jersey and other states, like Louisiana, the economic loss, if you have a spill, is just incredible."

KAUFMAN also called out Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for not wanting the federal government to oversee drilling.

But he cites that MMS and its lack of inspectors as the primary cause of the disaster.

"The human tragedy and the loss of wildlife is going to be extraordinary," he said.

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