Asleep behind the wheel
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/bungling_the_gulf_spill_respon.html
States follow the tried-and-true steps when federal assistance is needed. The governor formally asks for federal assistance. The request allows federal activation inside the state that is otherwise prohibited by law. The president responds by issuing a disaster declaration. Governors have requested federal spill assistance, yet a Presidential Disaster Declaration covering the blowout has yet to be signed. That declaration should have been issued early on, if not immediately.
The declaration activates the federal response. With no disaster declaration, the result is no authority to act, no spill plan activation, no unified command. A simple definition of unified command is command-level representatives of private, state, federal, and volunteer groups in one room with someone selected by the lead agency in command.
Instead, the administration announced the appointment of Admiral Allen to coordinate "an organization of 16 federal departments and agencies responsible for coordinating emergency preparedness and response to oil and hazardous substance pollution incidents."
This is a committee, not a unified command. State, private, and volunteer groups are absent. At best, the result is the federal government talking to itself.
...
The 1990 Oil Pollution Act placed the authority to respond to oil spills in the hands of the president. Like it or not, with command and control authority comes responsibility. Somewhere on the president's desk is a form that has been used by presidents since Harry S. Truman. That form gives professional emergency services personnel authority to act. It's called a Presidential Declaration of Disaster, and it needs only a signature.
States follow the tried-and-true steps when federal assistance is needed. The governor formally asks for federal assistance. The request allows federal activation inside the state that is otherwise prohibited by law. The president responds by issuing a disaster declaration. Governors have requested federal spill assistance, yet a Presidential Disaster Declaration covering the blowout has yet to be signed. That declaration should have been issued early on, if not immediately.
The declaration activates the federal response. With no disaster declaration, the result is no authority to act, no spill plan activation, no unified command. A simple definition of unified command is command-level representatives of private, state, federal, and volunteer groups in one room with someone selected by the lead agency in command.
Instead, the administration announced the appointment of Admiral Allen to coordinate "an organization of 16 federal departments and agencies responsible for coordinating emergency preparedness and response to oil and hazardous substance pollution incidents."
This is a committee, not a unified command. State, private, and volunteer groups are absent. At best, the result is the federal government talking to itself.
...
The 1990 Oil Pollution Act placed the authority to respond to oil spills in the hands of the president. Like it or not, with command and control authority comes responsibility. Somewhere on the president's desk is a form that has been used by presidents since Harry S. Truman. That form gives professional emergency services personnel authority to act. It's called a Presidential Declaration of Disaster, and it needs only a signature.