Nope, I'm not buying the Coast Guard Claim

... that the boom's can't/won't meet quality control.

I'm sorry, this is just a little "too" convenient for a claim.    You've got equipment waiting for use... you had a BP engineer check them, you had a coast guard inspector check them, and somehow the QA information  doesn't make it back to the factory?

Lapoint said the boom “not only meets” standards, “it exceeds it.”
“The only issue was the end connectors,” Lapoint said. So, he said, “we changed it to the universal connector, so there shouldn’t be any problems at all.”

AP makes the same argument I make... if BP _was_ interested in the boom, if it wasn't good enough (for whatever reason), why not tell them immediately what needs to be upgraded, and why wait weeks to pass that on?

The reason I say this 'argument' is fishy to me is that Lapoint states that he did his own research on what _was_ being used

But he remains frustrated. “I had two engineers go down to the Gulf. I was told it had to be the universal connector. I can’t tell you the miles of boom coming in from overseas that doesn’t have the universal connector.” He called the pushback against his boom “hogwash.”

 In other words, the "current" boom was at the same level as the current stuff being made by PackGen, and wasn't immediately available, why is PackGen's not good enough? 

Now I will say I'll take Lapoint's comments with a grain of salt, considering he's defending his company/factory, but again, this sounds more like the Coast Guard and the EPA and company playing "cover your ass" than finding a legitimate problem with PackGen's equipment, considering the primary man in charge of the Coast guard _wasn't_ even aware of the equipment as of the start of the weekend?

Yeah, now does anyone want to get their stories straight... cause the Coast Guard sure as hell isn't.