Mayors Call for Involvement of Local Officials in BP Oil Disaster Response, Recovery
By Ted Fischer and Laura Waxman
June 28, 2010
"When disasters strike, mayors are called to action," Conference of Mayors President Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz said when she opened an emergency June 14 session on the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico during the Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Oklahoma City. "There is a tendency for state and federal partners to under appreciate the role of mayors when it comes to an immediate response, after a disaster strikes. With the help of The U.S. Conference of Mayors, Washington is learning to relate better to our needs and the needs of our cities," she continued.
The emergency session brought together Gulf Coast mayors and others from across the country to discuss the disaster, the response to it, and ways to mitigate its environmental and economic impacts. Three Gulf Coast mayors briefed their colleagues on the problems they are seeing:
Tallahassee Mayor John Marks expressed concern that local governments have been "left out of the loop" and are not being engaged directly by either BP or Coast Guard incident command operations.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who joined the session via phone, discussed the need to encourage continued tourism to the Gulf region and the consumption of Gulf Coast seafood. He also expressed concern about the impact that the moratorium on oil drilling was having on jobs in the region.
Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden emphasized the national impact the disaster is having, that it is "not just a regional situation." He said the Gulf Coast contributes $3 billion to the national economy, provides 70 percent of the nation's shrimp and oysters, and is the home to seven of the nation's top ten ports.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson briefed the mayors via conference call on the federal response to the crisis and responded to their questions. Following are excerpts from her remarks:
"For mayors in the Gulf region this is a very tragic event to the livelihood and the way of life they have lived for many years including the beloved fish and wildlife of the region. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the 11 workers who were tragically lost on the rig explosion. Rest assured we are working in our full power to overcome this unprecedented crisis. There are more than 20,000 federal responders on the ground working around the clock including NOAA, DHS, EPA, OSHA, the Small Business Administration and the Coast Guard. Our materials and data which are being collected are also being posted on an immediate basis at www.epa.gov/bpspill for full transparency on the crisis."
"We are working to provide communities with the information they need to understand the current situation. We are doing the best we can to clean up the spill without adding further damage to the existing ecosystem. We are combining our efforts to remove oil from the coastal waterways, area beaches and marshes. The steps taken with dispersants are only taken as a trade off; we need to take responsible actions. BP only uses dispersants when other methods are not feasible including skimming or various other methods of collection."
"Long term challenges are possible, even could be years away not months. One single accident at one off shore well has taught us that it can cause billions of dollars in damages, cost countless jobs and the destruction of the environment of an entire region."
The mayors discussed a proposed resolution on the BP oil disaster which, among other things, calls on the President to establish a special task force of appropriate senior federal official, mayors and other local officials from areas affected or likely to be affected and to appoint a Gulf Coast Oil Disaster commander to direct the actions of all federal agencies. The resolution also calls on Congress to ensure that lead federal agencies are coordinating closely with cities and local governments in all phases of the national response. Many of the mayors in the session signed on as co'sponsors of the resolution, which was passed unanimously the next day during the Conference's business session.
The text of the resolution and a video of the session are both available on the Conference's Web site: www.usmayors.org.
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