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WASHINGTON - Taking another unconventional stand, Kentucky's Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul criticized President Barack Obama's handling of the Gulf oil spill Friday as anti-business and sounding "really un-American."

Paul's defense of oil company BP PLC came during an interview as he tried to explain his controversial take on civil rights law, an issue that seemed to suddenly swamp his campaign after his victory in Tuesday's GOP primary.

"What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,'" Paul said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America." "I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNN on May 2: "Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum."

Other Republicans have criticized the administration's handling of the oil spill, but few have been so vocal in defending BP, the company responsible for the deep well and offshore rig that exploded last month, killing 11 workers and spewing millions of gallons of oil.

Paul appeared two days after a landslide primary victory over the Republican establishment's candidate, Trey Grayson. He has been scrambling to explain remarks suggesting businesses be allowed to deny service to minorities without fear of federal interference, even though he says he personally abhors discrimination. On Friday he said he wouldn't seek to repeal the Civil Rights Act or Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, among other areas.

     
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  Civil rights flap
May 20: Rand Paul says he "unequivocally...will not support any efforts to repeal" the bill. NBC's John Yang reports.

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On the oil spill, Paul, a libertarian and tea party favorite, said he had heard nothing from BP indicating it wouldn't pay for the spill that threatens devastating environmental damage along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

"And I think it's part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be somebody's fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen," Paul said.

The Senate candidate also referred to a Kentucky coal mine accident that killed two men, saying he had met with the families and he admired the coal miners' courage.

"We had a mining accident that was very tragic. ... Then we come in and it's always someone's fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen," he said.

An eye doctor and political novice, Paul defeated a rival recruited by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. He immediately invited Obama, whose approval ratings in Kentucky are fairly low, to campaign for the state's Democrats.

Paul, 47, credited tea party activists with powering him to victory. The first opinion poll since then showed him with a wide lead over his Democratic rival, Jack Conway.

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HOUSTON, May 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Monday ordered BP Plc. (BP.L) to "significantly scale back" its use of chemical dispersants to fight a giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency said.

"The federal government, led by the Coast Guard, is today instructing BP to take immediate steps to significantly scale back the overall use of dispersants," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told reporters on a conference call. (Reporting by Chris Baltimore)

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The company's next effort to plug the leak is to come at dawn Wednesday. BP plans to pump thick, viscous fluid twice the density of water into the site of the leak to stop the flow so the well can then be sealed with cement -- the "top kill" procedure.

Hayward, noting that the attempt will be carried out on the seafloor a mile below the sea surface, estimated the odds of success for the method at 60 percent to 70 percent.

Asked about the company's continued use of an oil dispersant in the face of an EPA request that it use a less toxic alternative, Hayward said, "Everything that we do with dispersants is with the explicit approval of the EPA."

But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she was not pleased with BP's response to the government's request. "The answer we got back from BP, to me, seemed more like a defense of their current choice -- reminded me a little bit of that old commercial 'I'd rather fight than switch,'" she told reporters in Venice, Louisiana.

"We need to ask ourselves whether there's not a better product out there."

Federal officials told BP that "we expect to see a substantial reduction in the overall amount of dispersant used," from 50,000 gallons or more per day to less than 15,000 gallons per day, she said.

That can be accomplished by releasing the dispersant below the surface of the water, she said. She said tests showed that the dispersant, Corexit 9500, was more toxic to baby shrimp and baby silverfish than were any of five other dispersants.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point person in the Gulf, called the decision to use dispersants a tradeoff. "It means we're willing to accept the effect of the oil in the ocean rather than on land," he said.

Hayward acknowledged that BP's reputation has taken a beating, but said the company is being straightforward about its efforts. "We're trying to communicate openly and transparently about everything that we've done," he said.

As the environmental impact of the disaster was just beginning to unfold, he noted that BP will set aside a half billion dollars to open a research program to study the effects of the spill.