JUNE 9, 2010 Call oil spill chief Admiral Fix-it he brings an understanding BY CAROL ROSENBERG of the push-pull of private- The Miami Herald public enterprise to this latest job, says a senior Coast Guard He’s a bear of a man with a officer who has served several grandfatherly demeanor who has had times on Allen’s staff. a role in some of the nation’s most politically charged controversies. ``Admiral Allen is able to take a very complex problem President George W. Bush put him and break it down into small Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, National Incident in charge of the segments that are more easy Commander for the Depwater Horizon oil spill response in September 2005 amid an to understand, and then bring a response, arrives by helicopter to tour clean-up outcry that FEMA director Michael wide range of people together efforts on Fourchon Beach in response to the D. ``Brownie’’ Brown wasn’t doing to come to a common solution,’’ oil spill in Port Fourchon, a heck of a job after all. La., Thursday, May 27, 2010. (Gerald Herbert / the officer said. Associated Press)

He was Coast Guard chief of staff Lately Allen has been other than a catastrophe, and we’re during the effort to tighten up port emphasizing the need to converge addressing it as such, and we’ll security in the aftermath of 9/11. skimmers from across the nation on a continue to do that.’’ And he was in charge of Miami 200-mile radius around the well site. during an era of interdictions, when Says the Coast Guard officer, the Coast Guard’s image shifted But, as his daily press briefings now who talked about his old boss from heroic rescuers to those who demonstrate, he’s also expected to help with anonymity because he is not detained Miami-bound Cubans at answer questions about everything authorized to speak about the oil sea and sent them back. related, from the spill’s impact on leak: ``He tells people, key decision wildlife to what is going on 5,000 feet makers, what they need to hear Now Coast Guard Adm. Thad below the ocean’s surface. as opposed to what they want to Allen, 61, is ``national incident hear. He does that with everybody. commander’’ of the worst oil spill in ``I’ve never said this is going well,’’ Nobody tells him what to say. He U.S. history, the face of the federal he said grimly at Tuesday’s daily tells BP what they need to hear, he effort responding to the Gulf of briefing, where he has emerged tells the president what the president Mexico disaster. as a key voice of the Obama needs to hear.’’ administration in what he calls And while it’s BP’s responsibility to ``the largest oil spill response in the Even when the solution is an plug the Deepwater Horizon’s leak, history of the country.’’ unpalatable one -- to try to mitigate it is Allen’s role to marshal the public damage and wait until a new relief effort -- from the states to the U.S. ``We knew this was catastrophic well is dug. government -- and oversee federal from the beginning when the oil rig resources brought to the problem. exploded and caught on fire. I’ve In that regard, the Center for said time and time again nothing Biological Diversity’s executive Between the Katrina assignment good happens when oil is on the director, Kierán Suckling, agrees. and his experience as a Coast Guard water,’’ he added. ``We’re making leader up and down the East Coast, no illusions that this is anything ``There are no good options here. It’s not like anyone can be waltzing at risk -- an imaginary well blowout message as a budget-cutting Coast in with solutions,’’ he said wearily in the that dumped Guard commandant, and that the Tuesday, Day 50 of the crisis. 126,000 gallons of crude and leaked Coast Guard’s ``command and control uncontrollably for 30 days; a tanker structure’’ was sufficiently ``agile and But Suckling says Allen had until grounding that unleashed hundreds of flexible’’ to offer quick help to Haiti this week seemed too sympathetic thousands of gallons of gasoline onto after the earthquake. to BP -- the admiral and BP CEO a highway, and a collision between a were spotted having foreign freighter and a tanker off the Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, Obama’s dinner together in New Orleans a Texas coast. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, attended week ago -- and too upbeat about an the change of command ceremony early resolution to give Americans And Allen’s role, as he explained earlier this month when Allen handed confidence in his role. June 1, was ``national incident off the job of commandant to a new commander for that exercise.’’ Coast Guard admiral. ``He should be visibly and singularly in control of the cleanup In between, he oversaw the Katrina That’s when his tenure in the top effort,’’ Suckling said. ``He should response, another job that put him in Coast Guard job ran out. be giving BP its marching orders. the role of telling politicians things He should be telling the American they might not want to hear. Now he’s serving ``at the pleasure people the straight scoop of what of the president’’ ahead of his long- is happening instead of mirroring A case in point: Allen persuaded ago scheduled July 1 retirement, a BP’s talking points.’’ New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to status that means he’s still wearing reverse himself in mid September the uniform of an active duty four- Federal officials and oil industry 2005 on plans to repopulate portions star admiral. executives try to disarm their critics of his evacuated city. by pointing out that the BP spill is Whether he’ll continue in the federal a calamity without precedent -- and It was a moment of high drama, and role as a civilian is still an open the effort to cope being improvised deep disappointment, for people question. on the spot. poised to come home to rebuild. But Allen had warned that, with But Allen, a Tucson native and 1971 But in April 2002, as commander Tropical Storm Rita bearing down, Coast Guard Academy graduate out of Portsmouth, Va., Allen took the hurricane-ravaged city was not who biked to work at times, boasted part in a civilian twist on a war game prepared to evacuate all over again. earlier this year he didn’t plan a of sorts, a drill with the participation traditional buy-a-boat retirement. of ExxonMobil. Like the Coast Guard itself, Allen blends a military style with a Instead, he said, before the calamity The site of the mock exercise was New civilian sensibility. befell the Gulf of Mexico, that although Orlean’s Superdome. The scenario he had lived at 47 different addresses, was a cascading series of accidents He talks of having ``rogered’’ President he looked forward to getting into not- that put the public and environment ’s belt-tightening for-profit public service work.