Crises management

To whoever is in charge be it B. P. Petroleum or some person who works for the government. 

I have a few suggestions to make about the crises in the Gulf of Mexico that may help.

1. Stop the blame game.  End Congressional hearings now and stop pointing fingers at B. P. Petroleum, George Bush, The republicans, the democrats, Bill Clinton, the Oil Companies, whoever or however we are drilling, our current President or any other person or institution.  This is counter productive, for now.  All of the energies both public and private  must be directed at correction and containment. 
2. Acknowledge publicly that this is a crises of undefined proportions that must be corrected.
3. Put one person in charge that has handled a complex crises before.  There is a person, he or she is out there.  Try Mayor Giuliani, Bill Gates or T. Boone Pickens as examples.  With this person’s assistance choose a “plug the hole” expert, a oil containment expert, and a clean up expert.  These responsibility heads must have proven experience in the area and they must be empowered. 
4. From there assign the Nobel Peace Prize scientists to the tasks at hand.  It is not reasonable to put a scientist in a place of handling management  when they should be figuring out the fix. 
5. Next pick a prominent public figure or good reputation to be the spokes person for this team.  Let all questions come through him or her  and be answered by him or her  to free up the people doing the fix to do their jobs. How about Condoleezza Rice?
6. Each area should work openly with state and local governments.  The State and local governments can work with local volunteers to do the many jobs that will need done .An open exchange between the local governments and the people in charge should be maintained at all times.  People do not like being excluded  from change either good or bad.  Include them in all things for information and input about what is  impacting their state or location,  This is very important.  Use existing resources of material, expertise or people.  Why put people together to clean beaches who have never done it before when every community already has people who do that job every day?
7. Use FIMA or a private group to look forward.  Bring in chambers of commerce, professional groups, or local governments to put together a list of possible worst case scenarios.  If the mouth of the Mississippi River is closed, what happens to business and industry?  Commerce, and environment must be considered here.  Then priorities must be set, agreed too, and communicated.  From this point forward no more public finger pointing as to why some priority must be put before another.  Plan for the worst in terms of environment and commerce.
8. It is time to acknowledge that B. P. Petroleum does not have enough money to pay for all of this.  Plans need to be made to cover how this will be paid for.
9. Plan globally for this disaster.  What if the oil gets into the gulf stream and heads to Europe?  How about oil on the beaches of the Caribbean Islands or the north coast of South America?  Contact those Governments and put them on alert. 

International relations will depend on our ability to communicate possible danger and what they can expect ion a worst case.

10. We need the oil and the jobs offshore drilling and production provides. Inspect the wells and rigs now.  Do not wait, clear them one at a time end bring them into production ASAP

I respectfully submit this short list that took all of five minutes to put together that speaks volumes more about crises management than, “plug the damn hole”,  “I want to kick somebody’s ass!” , or we have been on it since day one.  This Nation is looking for a leader and we had better find one, and soon.