In a separate incident last week, a reporter and photographer from The Daily News of New York were told by a BP contractor they could not access a public beach on Grand Isle, La., one of the areas most heavily affected by the oil spill. The contractor summoned a local sheriff, who then told the reporter, Matthew Lysiak, that news media had to fill out paperwork and then be escorted by a BP official to get access to the beach.

This infuriates me. Who do you turn to when even the police are colluding with BP to censor what’s happening? Why does the Coast Guard/FAA command center building belong to BP, and why is BP answering the phone there? Even US Senators are having trouble gaining access; does the government really have any control at all?