What?! BP controlling restricted airspace over Gulf?

Why is BP given the authority to determine who can fly over restricted airspace in the Gulf of Mexico? And why are they answering the phone at a government command center?

According to a New York Times report, when a local flying charter service called the Coast Guard-FAA command center for permission to take a Times-Picayune photographer up for pictures of the spill, a BP contractor denied the request.

The owner of the charter service said that the contractor asked extensive questions about who was on the aircraft. When told it was media, the immediate answer was “not allowed.”

BP and government officials refer to instances of denying media access as “anomalies.”

It turns out that the command center is in a building owned by BP.

CBS News reported that last month one of its news crew was threatened with arrest for trying to film on a public beach.

Source: New York Times