11.13.2007 8:24 AM

San Francisco Oil Spill: Has Terrorism Cost the Environment?

Coast Guard Slow to Respond, Perhaps, Because of Homeland Security Focus

Photo: Eric Risberg / AP Photo

By Dan Shapley

This question has been formulated in various ways since 9/11: What has the response to terrorism cost America?

The latest version is being asked in San Francisco, where the Coast Guard is being criticized for a slow response to an oil spill that has now fouled 40 miles of beach and threatens hundreds of thousands of birds, fish and marine mammals.

Critics, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, say the agency's "new Homeland Security duties have eroded its ability to tackle such environmental disasters."

The Coast Guard, for its part, has admitted that it may still be finding the right balance in its mission to defend the homeland from a variety of maritime threats. Including threats to the environment.

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