Blaming BP

Today, America is witnessing one of the worst environmental disasters in our history. The sad part is, much of this disaster could have been prevented.

From day one, the Gulf crisis was mishandled. President Obama politicized this crisis instead of dealing with it head-on. His lack of leadership was on full display as he failed to engage in finding solutions, but chose instead to lash out and blame BP for everything.

Why didn’t President Obama gather a group of world experts to find solutions for stopping the leak and for finding methods to prevent the spread of oil? Even more troubling, why did the president, the federal government, and BP ignore offers of help from nations and people with solutions? Why did they refuse help from the Dutch, three days after the spill, to supply skimmers to clean up the oil? Also, why did they refuse help from a Texas company with booms, stop the burning off of the oil on the surface of the ocean, prevent the building of barriers to stop the spread of oil, and ignore the requests from Governor Jindal of Louisiana?

The question of the day, why were President Obama and the federal government so slow to act on the gulf crisis? Could the answer be: politics, destruction of the oil industry, passing cap and trade, and utter incompetence? America deserves better.—Diana Thorn, Carpinteria