Drue Wands has it right in a letter to the editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Gov. Bobby Jindal was on TV and asked why there was so much oil boom still on the docks and not deployed. A member of the Coast Guard stated that he was "just slow." I know several fishermen, shrimpers and oystermen who were hired to deploy oil boom, but they are sitting around waiting on drug tests

As Gen. George S. Patton said; " A good plan executed violently and immediately is better than a perfect plan executed next week." Of course, action costs money, and those paying the bill might not want to spend money to protect a coastline when the oil might land elsewhere.