Last night was President Obama’s first Oval Office address, and he used the weighty occasion to address the nation’s concerns about what is happening on the Gulf Coast, 57 days after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Obama told the American public what has happened, what government officials and the private sector are doing to address the crisis, the steps that still need to be taken, and perhaps most significantly, what long-term lessons the country should take from the incident. “Presidents often save the Oval Office address for matters of war and peace,” wrote Politico’s Glenn Thrush, adding that Obama’s speech “conveyed the image of a leader on wartime footing” in a “battle” against an environmental disaster. Yesterday, the government released new figures showing that as much as 60,000 barrels of oil — or more than 2.5 million gallons — are flowing each day from the damaged well. Today, Obama and Vice President Biden will meet with BP executives, a gathering at which the President said he will tell them to “set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of [the] company’s recklessness.”

PERSONNEL CHANGES: One of Obama’s most well-received steps to address the oil spill has been appointing Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen to oversee the clean-up effort, a move that, as the Center for American Progress pointed out, established a “highly visible leader at the White House” to “lead the command and coordination at the cabinet level.” Yesterday, Obama made two other much-needed personnel announcements. First, he appointed a new head of the embattled Minerals Management Service, which, for years, was the “handmaiden” of the oil industry it was supposed to be regulating. His choice, Michael Bromwich, “has no experience with oil and gas issues, but he has a reputation for cleaning up embattled organizations,” according to the Washington Post. Second, the President tapped Navy Secretary and former Mississippi governor Ray Mabus to “develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan as soon as possible.” These personnel plans follow Obama’s establishment last month of an independent commission to probe the spill, a step first recommended by the Center for American Progress.

COMPENSATING VICTIMS: As tar balls wash up on shore, clean-up workers become ill, and wildlife die from the mess, the public is becoming increasingly angry at BP, the company that operated the Deepwater Horizon rig. Eighty-three percent of Americans disapprove of BP’s response. Last week, BP CEO Tony Hayward came under intense criticism for claiming that the company has paid “every claim that’s been presented,” adding that it takes only 48 hours to receive a check. In reality, fewer than half of the claims have been paid. This week, the Obama administration took away some of BP’s compensation-decision authority and announced an “independently administered fund for reimbursing victims.” It also told the company to put “‘substantial’ funds into an escrow account to cover claims.” Hours before Obama’s speech last night, BP “announced it was accelerating its claims process for businesses affected by the spill — but…continued to resist the administration’s efforts to make the company pay for lost wages due to a moratorium on deepwater drilling.” Additionally, BP is reportedly already objecting to details of the escrow fund to compensate workers and businesses, with a lack of agreement on “who would administer it and whether BP shareholders would have to approve the transfer of money required for the account.”

CLEANING UP THE OIL INDUSTRY: BP isn’t alone in its malfeasance. Yesterday, executives from oil giants BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, revealing the inadequacy of their plans for dealing with oil spills, plans which the government requires for deep-water drilling applications for the Gulf of Mexico. As the Washington Post noted, “Three of them listed the phone number for the same University of Miami marine science expert, Peter Lutz, who died in 2005. Four talked about the need to protect walruses, which, as Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) dryly noted, ‘have not called the Gulf of Mexico home for 3 million years.’ The plans also mentioned protecting sea lions and seals, which aren’t found in the gulf, either.” ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson essentially admitted to Congress that the industry has to do everything possible to prevent offshore drilling disasters, because once they occur, there is not any way to stop the damage. “When you look at the details, it becomes evident these [response] plans are just paper exercises,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).

THE NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY AND CLIMATE REFORM: Perhaps the part of Obama’s speech with the most long-term impact was his call for Congress to pass clean energy legislation, leading to a “transition away from fossil fuels.” “The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight,” said the President. “Countries like China are investing in clean energy jobs and industries that should be right here in America. Each day, we send nearly $1 billion of our wealth to foreign countries for their oil. … We cannot consign our children to this future.” He praised the House for passing “a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill” last year, but stopped short of giving any specifics. Obama never used the words “carbon,” “greenhouse gases,” “global warming” or “cap and trade,” but he did give “primetime props to Senate proposals” for a nationwide renewable electricity standard and increased energy efficiency. As the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein noted last night on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, “[T]he one big thing you could see here was an echo of the health care rhetoric: that inaction’s too costly, and he won’t accept failure and he’ll listen to other solutions as long as they solve the problem. But he didn’t say what the problem was and he didn’t say what success would be.” Yet instead of agreeing to take up the challenge of energy independence, Republicans immediately slammed Obama, with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele stating that he was “[e]xploiting the tragedy in the Gulf to try to ram through a devastating job-killing national energy tax.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is reportedly gathering his caucus for a meeting on Thursday “to discuss how to proceed on energy and — maybe — climate change provisions.” The Senate reportedly plans to take up a bill during the week of July 12. However, Reid’s spokesman said that a climate component would be unlikely without significant GOP support. CAP has proposed an oil reform agenda to regulate the oil industry while “moving the American economy toward a cleaner and more secure energy future.”