Dear Mr. president,
Lately I am finding it extremely difficult to show respect to you or even to the office you hold at the moment. On this one point we can agree, government holds a certain level of responsibility to the BP Spill or any major environmental disaster.
There were and are a number of ongoing failures on the part of your government. These failures range from not accepting international assistance to clean-up the spill, mitigate the spill, and minimize the damage from the spill to the EPA and DHS having spill plans in place without appropriate allocation of equipment and I will refer to the policies put in place by Congress that have forced oil companies into positions of high risk due to over regulation.
Some of us Mr. president, understand that major natural resources such as oil are required by our nation. They are required because oil isn’t just about transportation and gasoline. Oil and its byproducts touch our lives in millions of places we would never even consider. It is that understanding in which we, We the People, have worked with oil companies to create, maintain, and grow our economy. This understanding leads or should lead to the cooperation that these risks are indeed carried by not only the oil companies and stakeholders, but every citizen.
If we want, if we need these resources then we all must accept and bear the responsibility for when disaster strikes. Mr. president that responsibility has not been upheld by your administration in the face of this crisis. Mr. president that responsibility which you are legally bound to implement in response to this spill has not been implemented and this citizen views as “willful negligence” on the part of your office, the EPA, and Homeland Security.
BP Oil had a horrible accident. An accident so egregious is may cost them their entire operation from the fines, fees, and litigation. Mr. president, you had it within your power to minimize the damage, to be of heroic assistance and instead you chose “willful negligence” to let the crisis fester to advance an unsustainable agenda.
Mr. president, you have breached the trust every citizen expects to be able have in their leaders during a time of crisis.
If even a lowly EHS Field Tech can see your “willful negligence,” then it rises to the level of criminal behavior and you should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. You see Mr. president, under the environmental laws of the United States of America it is not just the companies that can be prosecuted. Individuals who were “willfully negligent” in the delegated duties can be held criminally liable.