Bush and her One Tree Hill co-star and real-life boyfriend Austin Nichols flew to Grand Isle in New Orleans, Louisiana this week (begs21Jun10) to survey the damage caused by the BP slick, which has been drifting ashore since a rig ruptured in April (10).
The actors toured the region by boat before meeting with local fishermen and community leaders to discuss the impact of the spill, ruled one of the the worst environmental disasters in American history.
And Bush admits she’s furious with officials who are allegedly preventing locals from volunteering to clean up the mess.
She tells Zap2It.com, “I’m enraged. I’m not even mad anymore. Coming down here I was angry, and leaving this place tomorrow, I am enraged and shocked that any of what’s going on down here is legal in the first place.
“Why can’t the people who live here and the people who are affected get in and help? Everyone is clamouring to volunteer. Everyone is saying we’ll go out on the boats and we’ll go on the beaches and we’ll go pick up oil. BP has told everybody that you’ve got to go through a Hazmat certification course, which they’re not offering, and unless you have a Hazmat suit and the training, you can’t go out on the beach. (But) we watched these guys (BP workers) walking around on the beaches wearing no protective gear other than plastic gloves and rain boots.”
The actress is also calling on fans to push government authorities to come up with a clean energy alternative to oil, adding: “In the end, this isn’t about celebrities putting their face on the cause. We have to write our congress. We have to write our senate. We have to petition our president… It’s time to make some noise. We all have to scream and yell and stomp our feet. Someone is going to listen.”
