Efficiency: Prior to the BP disaster, at least 16 different federal agencies claimed to have responsibility for handling oil spills

Before the tragic explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th, at least 16 different government bureaucracies claimed to have responsibility for responding to -- and cleaning up -- an oil spill. Consider the EPA's website, for instance.

According to the "National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan Overview", the EPA has responsibility for reacting to and cleaning up spills.

The first National Contingency Plan was developed and published in 1968 in response to a massive oil spill from the oil tanker Torrey Canyon off the coast of England the year before. More than 37 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the water, causing massive environmental damage. To avoid the problems faced by response officials involved in this incident, U.S. officials developed a coordinated approach to cope with potential spills in U.S. waters. The 1968 plan provided the first comprehensive system of accident reporting, spill containment, and cleanup, and established a response headquarters, a national reaction team, and regional reaction teams (precursors to the current National Response Team and Regional Response Teams...

...Congress has broadened the scope of the National Contingency Plan over the years. As required by the Clean Water Act of 1972, the NCP was revised the following year to include a framework for responding to hazardous substance spills as well as oil discharges. Following the passage of Superfund legislation in 1980, the NCP was broadened to cover releases at hazardous waste sites... The latest revisions to the NCP were finalized in 1994 to reflect the oil spill provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

Gee, that sounds simple.

The Department of the Interior describes the makeup of the "National Response Team" and how it reacted to the latest spill.

The National Response Team (NRT), an organization of 16 federal departments and agencies responsible for coordinating emergency preparedness and response to oil and hazardous substance pollution incidents was quickly activated and a coordinated group of federal partners-including the United States Coast Guard, Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency-immediately began directing and overseeing BP's response...

In truth, none of these entities -- other than the Coast Guard -- appeared to execute anything that even resembled a contingency plan.

Ron Gouget, who once managed Gulf spill response teams, publicly pilloried the administration's response to the tragic oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Gouget is an expert when it comes to these matters: he helped create the 1994 plan that allowed expedited burning of oil as soon as a major spill had occurred -- without having to wait for permission or approvals.

Isn't a massive federal bureaucracy awesome?

In fact, the useless buffoon Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, was preparing to award BP a certificate of safety excellence just days before the tragic blowout.

This is precisely why -- as part of balancing the out-of-control federal budget -- all unconstitutional and unelected pseudo-branches of government need to be eradicated. That means you, Departments of the Interior, Education and Labor. That means you, EPA. That means every other cluster of hacks that exist solely to torment us with regulations and dictates. These clueless hacks couldn't execute a 16-year old plan for handling an oil spill -- while they claim they can run 16% of the economy -- the entire U.S. health care system.