Allen gives mixed grades to BP response

The official overseeing the government response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico said on Sunday the British company performed admirably in stopping the leak but proved poor at public relations.

Retired U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program that the company’s response was too mixed to judge as a whole. Asked by CNN host Candy Crowley to judge BP’s response on an A-to-F grading scale, Allen said the company did some things well but performed poorly at others.

“I’d have to break it into parts,” Allen said. “I think at the well-head, I’m not sure there’s any oil company that could do more than they did. The technology that was needed had to be brought in from other parts of the world, was. It took a long time to engineer it. It took a long time to install it. But ultimately, it helped us put the cap on and control the well. So I give them fairly good marks there.

“What BP is not good at. … They’re a large, global oil production company. They don’t do retail sales, or deal with individuals on a transactional basis. That’s been a real struggle for them. … It’s something they don’t naturally have as a capacity or a competency in their company, and it’s been very, very hard for them to understand. And that’s the lens through which the American people view them, and that’s where they need to improve.”

Allen, 61, retired this summer but remains an executive on the staff of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.