Frustrated Salazar: 'We'll Push BP Out of the Way'

As the Obama administration ramps up its response to the Gulf oil disaster, the interior secretary visited BP's Houston headquarters today and blasted the company for missing "deadline after deadline" in the cleanup effort. "There's no question BP is throwing everything at this problem," Ken Salazar acknowledged. "But if you ask me if I have confidence in what they're doing? No, not completely."

"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," Salazar warned. But federal law instituted in the wake of the Exxon Valdez catastrophe in 1989 requires that BP take the lead in cleaning up the mess. It's not clear how Salazar's threat fits in with the legal situation, notes the New York Times.