This is, once again, an addition to a long litany of the colossal fuck-ups that BP has done in managing their response to the oil spill. Apparently, they've not really been manning their volunteer centers, and have refused to take in volunteers with actual background experience in responding to oil spills. Here's more from Brad Johnson at Think Progress on this issue:
BP has rejected the help of thousands of volunteers, many with expert training and experience in handling offshore oil disasters and oil spill cleanup. Yesterday, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd interviewed Don Abrams of OilSpillVolunteers.com, who collected the names of nearly 8,000 volunteers in the first weeks after BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion, and tried repeatedly to contribute their expertise to mitigating this national disaster. Many of the volunteers Abrams had organized have certification in the federal government’s official Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard (HAZWOPER), and were ready and able to train others.
On May 13, we turned over a list of about a hundred highly qualified people to BP, including people with two to three decades of offshore oil experience, people with experience in spill clean ups, people who are HAZWOPER instructors. As of about two days ago, I contacted about half of those people, and none of them have been contacted by BP.
Abrams explained that he has turned over his list to state agencies and local non-profit organizations, after BP and the federal government failed to respond. The Center for American Progress recommends that the government, not BP, run the volunteer hotlines and cleanup efforts. "People actually just want to be called to service," Center for American Progress fellow Van Jones said on Sunday. "‘What are we supposed to do, Mr. President? And we will do it.’ That’s what’s missing."
And here's the desperate message from Abrams to BP--will it be heard?
Attention BP - If any BP management person is reading this, please contact us. We're eager to help you but we're unable to get through to the right people via the toll-free numbers. The automated response I received from your Horizon Call Center indicates that you have "hundreds of people willing to volunteer." We have thousands. Your local community outreach people are good folks who are working hard but they don't have the right information and resources. BP management needs to help us and them.
And a BP call center service operator says that the volunteer hotlines are basically just a sham set up to keep the people away from the corporate bigwigs and to make it look like they're being proactive in their volunteer response to the oil spill.
Janice said calls about the oil disaster are non-stop and that operators are just warm bodies on the other end of the phone."We're a diversion to stop them from really getting to the corporate office, to the big people," said Janice.
The calls come in from around the world, but it's the desperation of those on the Gulf Coast that has affected her the most."I don't want to get emotional, but it's so frustrating when these people live right there and nothing is being done to help them," the operator said.
For weeks on end, 12 hours a day, there is a little secret that Janice said she has witnessed firsthand.
Because the operators believe the calls never get past them, some don't even bother taking notes.
This is why I stand with the progressives at the Center for American Progress in urging a more proactive approach by the government towards the clean-up process and data collection. This is why we should not let BP take charge of contractors, control the data collection process, and so on.