Oil Spill Response's Command Structure "Failing Us"

“The law is very clear. The oil pollution act of 1990 said it’s the President’s job to direct the disaster. BP is responsible for paying for the disaster, but BP should not be calling shots on the ground. And under the law the President’s supposed to be the quarterback calling the shots, but the quarterback has ceded that power to BP. It’s been a very big frustration of mine from the beginning because I still get local leaders that say they spend more time fighting the federal government and BP than they do fighting the oil because of the way that the President has set up the structure where nobody’s accountable when things go wrong. And they just blame it on BP.
 
The President needs to be responsible through the command he sets up and if that’s the Coast Guard or if he brings in a separate commander. I’d like him to bring in someone like General Honoré who led the effort after Katrina on the ground for President Bush. By all accounts from everybody he did a great job. He made decisions on the ground. Nobody’s making final decisions on the ground. Our local leaders say it takes them 5 days to get basic answers to questions because they tell the Coast Guard, the Coast Guard goes and asks BP, and they go around in circles, and nobody makes any decisions and nobody’s held accountable when things go wrong. That’s not a command structure that’s effective and, in fact, it’s failing us right now.”