Florida officials are frustrated over the slow response of the Obama administration and BP (NYSE:BP) (LON:BP) to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico which is now starting to spread to their shores and impact their tourism industry.
Because of the slow response, officials are calling for BP to continue paying for the cleanup efforts but allow Florida to run the operations.
“They can write the checks,” said Gene Valentino, a commissioner for Escambia County. “In the meantime, we need action. We need boots on the ground. We need specific remedies and solutions to respond to the impacts as they occur.”
BP Florida spokeswoman Lucia Bustamante said this about the situation, “We are ready, we are prepared, adding BP is training people “as fast as we can,” adding they are committed to using local residents as their cleanup workers.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said this today, “I’m outraged by that [time it's taking skimmer boats to reach the area]. Why are we waiting this long to do this? Why is the Coast Guard, Obama, BP waiting? They’ve seen it coming, so why are we waiting?”
It will take up to two weeks for the 20 skimmer boats committed to the state to all be in place.
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