We could label any one of a number of BP officials as the “bad guy” in the ongoing oil spill crisis, but the fact is that the lack of transparency and disregard for Gulf Coast residents could not happen without government permission.
We have to face the fact that retired Admiral Thad Allen, the federal government’s oil spill response director, has shown way too much regard for his corporate overlords and way too little regard for citizens and victims. When he catches BP red-handed neglecting signs of a leak in its well-cap, he tolerates the lie and insists on being informed within four hours of a problem?
Then he issues a forceful “letter” to BP? This is the guy we have in charge of the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history? If the government wants to come off as anything but a corporate co-conspirator in this lackadaisical response, it will have to do a lot better than Allen’s effort so far.
