For the first time since oil started flooding the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama has shown passion and vision about where this unfolding tragedy should lead us -- to end our national addiction to oil and other forms of carbon-based energy.

"The next generation will not be held hostage to energy sources from the last century," the president vowed today in a speech clearly aimed at a rising chorus of critics who, like us, wonder why the president has been so inspirationally absent on what may be this nation's worst environmental disaster. Last Friday, while standing amid the oily carnage on a Louisiana beach, Obama did little more than pluck a tar ball from the sand and show it to the press. What a letdown. What a missed opportunity.

Today was better.

In a speech on economics at Canegie Mellon University, President Obama steered straight to the oil spill and said it exemplified what we must leave behind on our way to a clean energy future. "I will make the case for a clean-energy future wherever I can, and I will work with anyone from either party to get this done. But we will get this done," he said. He gave a string of assurances and promises about how he will shape that future, among them these:

Heavy oil now in coastal marshes. Courtesy National Geographic

Exposed by the Gulf oil spill disaster as a conflict-ridden friend of oil companies it was supposed to regulate, the federal Minerals Management Service died today—dismantled by Interior Sec. Ken Salazar, who's obviously feeling the heat of eight congressional hearings and an angry president.

The MMS, corrupted by the sum of its dual roles to collect royalties from oil companies it oversees, was split into three separate agencies: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and Office of Natural Resources Revenue.

Unfortunately, the split comes too late for the Gulf of Mexico, which is reeling from millions of gallons of oil loosed into it by a British Petroleum offshore drilling scheme that MMS approved on assurances from BP that the chances of a big spill were insignificant and that, at any rate, BP could handle anything that happened.

It still isn't too late for the Arctic Ocean, however, whose sensitive offshore waters are to be drilled this summer by Shell Oil under an inadequate plan also approved by the MMS. At this point, only President Obama and/or Sec. Salazar can keep this from happening.

<Update: Earthjustice supporters are starting to weigh in on the legislation on our Facebook page. Feel free to join in.>

Yesterday’s Senate hearings on the Gulf oil spill appropriately set the stage for today’s introduction of the American Power Act, the climate and energy bill draft produced by Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham, who ultimately pulled his support of the draft in a dramatic turn of events in late April.

After months of negotiations with industry and oil company execs, rumors, leaks, press statements, news reports, and general media hoopla surrounding this bill and its drafting process, Senators Kerry and Lieberman finally unveiled the bill sans Graham.

Just minutes ago, the entire bill hit the internet, along with a handful of summaries and section-by-section synopses of the bill.

The three companies responsible for the spill in the Gulf of Mexico—British Petroleum, Transocean and Halliburton—appeared in the second panel of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. They'll also appear this afternoon before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, making it a long day under the congressional microscope for these companies.

Lamar McKay (President of BP America Inc.), Steve Newman (President and CEO of Transocean) and Tim Probert (President of Global Business Lines for Halliburton) stressed that more information is needed before a rush to judgment about the disastrous spill.

Newman said that "until we know what happened, we cannot determine the best route for the future." This comment supports the "time out" Earthjustice is asking President Obama to take on drilling offshore in the Arctic Ocean. There is still much scientific data needed to ensure a spill such as the one that happened in the Gulf doesn't happen again.