As the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to assume alarming proportions, US officials are trading barbs and criticizing each other for lack of efficiency to tackle the issues that has led to an environmental catastrophe.

Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal blamed energy giant BP and the federal government for failing to act fast and swift enough to protect the state’s coastlines from a massive undersea oil leak. He said that the US Coast Guard and BP were slow to make decisions and delayed supplying necessary clean-up equipment even as oil washes onto the state’s fragile marshland. Jindal, whose words were echoed by a number of local officials, said he was frustrated by the slow pace, stressing that the delays were unacceptable. Oil from a blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico has been gushing into the sea for over a month. Already, oil had tarred 65 miles of the Louisiana’s coast.

In fact the involved companies have shown nothing but laxity to impede the progress of oil into the marshlands; a phenomenon that puts maritime life in the jeopardy of annihilation. Experts on coastal issues including environmentalist and academics have serious doubts about the plans to contain the detrimental effects of the oil leak. The US government has warned in case that BP does not abide by its commitment it will cancel contract with this company. Oil giant BP has faced mounting pressure to control a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico after the US government threatened to take over the response to the month-old disaster. US Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, said that if the government finds that BP is not doing what it is supposed to do, it will be pushed out of the way. Salazar underlined that BP is legally responsible for dealing with a ruptured pipe that has been gushing oil into the gulf from the wreckage of an offshore rig. He lashed out at BP for missing deadline after deadline as its latest attempt to cap the environmentally devastating leak was hit with further delays. The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers, and sank two days later. Ever since, hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil, if not millions, have been spewing each day into the sea. The government of Barack Obama is now under the pressure of the public that calls for putting an immediate end to this environmental catastrophe. Republicans, despite affinity with the oil circle, attacked Obama for not being able to handle the issue. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who was governor of the oil-rich state of Alaska, accused Obama of being lax in his response to the disaster and suggested this was because he was too close to the lucrative offshore oil drilling industry.