Gulf States Slow to Deploy National Guard to Fight Oil Spill, CBS Reports

I appreciate the high level of discussion this forum allows the American public to voice their feelings and concerns whatever they may be. Regarding the recent debacle in the Gulf, no agency federal or state, no local community or organization, can coordinate relief efforts on its own without help from other sources. THe degree of coordination of all oil spill-related relief efforts must be regulated to ensure safe and effective operation. This means locals must receive permission from their respective authorities, state plans from regional federal disaster relief centers, and federal agencies from their respective heads.

This does not mean there is an excuse for delay, but delays there inevitably are. BP itelf would have been wise to have put in place comprehensive contingency plans, but failed to doi so. All the other oil companies similarly situated were equally negligent and culpable. So, too, were the primary federal agencies like MMA, the Department of the Interior as a whole, and comparable state and regional authorities responsible for oversight and regulation of offshore oil drilling and production. There is no lack of culpability to go around this time. Pointing fingers will not stem this crisis, save one brown pelican or rigley's tortoise, or oyster bed. The Gulf and its native species will bear the brunt of this catastrophe that could have and should have been averted by pressured execs from BP and lacksadaisical enforcers in Interior. No one will listen to corrective measures advocated by whistleblowers, or even a company's own engineers in the course of their duties, if big money is involved. That is the ultimiate lesson of the Gulf. We don't want clean energy badly enough at this point to fight for it, enforce safety regulations turned soft into nonbinding recommendations to the oil interests, or convert our economies to more conserve-a-tively based industry with reusables, recyclables, and greener alternatives.

Lastly, these once resourceful United States have relinquished their committment to the Late Great Planet Earth principles of developing alternative rapid transit to curb deficit-ridden oil importation, ecological disatster, carcinogenic risks to human health, global pollution from accelerated use of fossil fuels on the envronment, and the requisite R&D to provide other cost-effective modes of travel.

iam so mad bp said they will make us whole are they going to give us back our way of life.will our childern and grandchildern know our way of life .fishing hunting ,catching shrimp,our wildlife our beaches.they can never replace what they took from us.i think obama going to let this go before long because there nothing they can do.

Maybe they're slow cuz tax-payers don't wanna foot a bill we didn't create.

as far as the spill goes, we have nothing but the reports from bp as to how the recovery is going, how much oil has spilled and how much will continue to spill. their august date of totally fixing it is just more baloney to appease us and very, very unlikely to be successful.

Attempting to deflect the blame on a major disaster is not a quality that most Americans were looking for in a President. The Federal Government obviously hasn't done nearly enough other than hinder both clean up and animal rescue.

When the environmentalists and other liberals were warning about the environmental hazards of oil drilling Gov. Jindal and other conservatives were saying it was perfectly safe. As I recall their mantra was DRILL BABY DRILL or Newt Gingrich's DRILL HERE DRILL NOW. Now that the very catastrophe forewarned by the environmentalists has occurred Jindal and others are saying, "Where is the federal government to clean up this mess?" The good folks of Louisiana need to find some boats and skimmers and get to work.

They tried to use them to build berms and get barriers deployed, but the Washington bureaucrats and environmentalists hindered them.

I don't think the National Guard has much expertise in oil recovery!

Has anyone told Jindal that his Adjutant General reports to HIM, notthe other way round?

Jindal is not ready for leadership, obviously.

The reason, the national guard was not called out by the govenors as requested by Obama, is that the states which are broke would pay the guards, but if Obama called up the guard the feds would pay. It is all about himslef and passing the cost and blame on others. Just as he won't fix ERISA which is a federal law that allows insurance companies to rip off the disable, but special interest money is keeping congress and Obama from fixing the problem as when he was in the senate and on the senate labor committee he did nothing about it. Go to youtube and see the video's by disabledvictim and learn the truth about how you or a loved one can become this laws next vicitm.