Obama's "Unified Command" Protects BP Destruction in the Gulf

May 28, 2010 (LPAC)—The Obama Administration's "Unified Command" front group for the interests of BP/Halliburton/TransOcean, is doing all it can to spread destruction throughout the Gulf of Mexico, by stalling and blocking any full-scale disaster response to the April 20 oil rig explosion. The following are four obvious areas:

*Stall-out on building coastal barriers. As of May 26, the Unified Command still had not expedited approval of a request made May 11 by Louisiana authorities to conduct a crash construction of a string of berms—sand barriers—along the state's coastline to fend off the in-spread of oil slick.

This afternoon, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal went on an aerial tour of the oil-fouled coast, especially near Grand Terre, where the state has begun some berm construction, thanks to an existing wetlands restoration permit. But approval has been held up for an all-out coastal protection mobilization.

For example, after Hurricane Katrina, a plan for berm construction was ready-to-go, for coastline protection of Plaquemines Parish, to protect against storm surges, which would also work against oil slicks. It was costed out at $350 million, to cover the dredges, sand, labor, etc., but the go-ahead has been stalled by lack of approval from the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, under the Unified Command.

In fact, what is required is a full mobilization for berms and coastal work all along the Gulf states—under expanded Army Corps of Engineers and related leadership, with brigades of civilian recruits wherever possible. But instead, the Unified Command has engaged in Alice-in-Wonderland quibbles about whether berm protection of Louisiana coastline, would not just divert the slicks to Mississippi, and so on.

* Boom operations limited. Instead of widespread use of boom operations to soak up the oil—hard booms, snare booms and sorbent booms (made from a material that sponges up oil, and repels water)—de-limited boom operations have been conducted, on a smaller scale defined by BP as "effective." Mark Salt, BP spokesman for boom work, insists that current labor, vessels and supplies of sorbent boom are sufficient—a stance upheld by the Unified Command, over the objections of the governors and coastal authorities of the Gulf states. Therefore, locals and volunteers are scrambling, one bayou at a time, to see what they can seal off. BP is paying prison labor, slave wages, to work on this.

What is actually required is a mass-scale mobilization.

* 17 nations offered aid, 14 rejected! So far, the support of only three nations—out of 17 offers—has been accepted by the Obama/BP Unified Command—marine engineers from Norway, help from Mexico, and aircraft from Canada. When confronted on this at the hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee, BP America President LaMar McCay said that, the Unified Command is in charge of what to accept or reject; and McCay denied the charge that the reason for refusing aid, is because BP would be responsible for expenses connected to donated mariners, vessels and other spill-fighting forces.

* Cat fight over dispersants. Instead of a policy and mobilization, EPA's Lisa Jackson and BP are sparring over how much and what kind of chemical spill products to be using. So far, BP has sprayed 800,000 gallons of Corexit 9500 on the sea surface, and more subsea. This week, 100 vessels, mostly fishing boats, have been taken out of service on oil spill containment (they were hired on, since fishing is kaput), after crew members developed illnesses from oil and chemicals. BP has not provided them any protective gear.