Who Cleans Up? Examining Local County Governments' Response to the British Petroleum Oil Spill

Abstract

This paper examines what factors influence a government’s ability to be effective and responsive in the context of the British Petroleum Oil Spill. A case study of the response of three counties in Florida was conducted, resulting in the creation of a government efficiency index to evaluate each county’s level of response. The project found that both social capital resources present in certain counties and the level of connections with different levels of government greatly impacted the quality of response. Environmental resources present in each county and the delegation of responsibilities in the response also had an impact on each response.