Oil Spill: 'No One Is In Charge,' Says Rep. Gene Taylor

June 28, 2010 (LPAC)—"It's criminal what's going on out there," said Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS), after a flight over the Mississippi coast in which oil could be seen moving into the Mississippi Sound, with no skimmers to be seen. "This doesn't have to happen," Taylor added, as reported by the Biloxi Sun Herald.

A scientist onboard the flight with Taylor, said that, with this scenario, there will be soon be oil on the beaches of the mainland. "There's oil in the Sound and there was no skimming," he said. "No coordinated effort."

"A lot of people are getting paid to say, 'Look! There's oil' and not doing anything about it," Taylor said. "There shouldn't be a drop of oil in the Sound. There are enough boats running around."

"Everybody's in charge, so no one's in charge," Taylor said. "If the President can't find anyone who can do this job, let me do it."

"I'm having a Katrina flashback," Taylor told a fellow passenger on the flight. "I haven't seen this much stupidity, wasted effort, money and wasted resources, since then." Later, he stated that Katrina wasn't preventable, but the disaster of oil reaching Mississippi beaches is preventable. Taylor had said earlier that if organized right, he believed a lot of small boats, working hard and working together, could contain the floating oil. He had submitted a detailed plan of action to BP and the Coast Guard, but he said he is concerned that the local Coast Guard commander doesn't have the authority to act without working through the Unified Command in Mobile.