There was an official government plan ready. Burn off the spill right above the source with fire booms. It had been in place, pre-approved for instant use years ago. It was capable of handling spills larger than this, at least if weather conditions allowed it. However our brilliant federal government never got around to buying the physical fire booms required. So it deployed what it had instead, fiery rhetoric.
Don’t put words in my mouth. Federal Government is much more to blame than BP for this disaster. The entire system failed the citizens of the gulf.