Ian Somerhalder was at home in Covington, La., relaxing after wrapping up work on the first season of The Vampire Diaries, when the April 20 oil well spill was triggered and thousands of barrels of oil began to gush into the water he grew up playing in.

"I never wanted to be one of those actors with a political agenda," Somerhalder tells the Los Angeles Times in an emotional interview. "But this has become Obama's Katrina in the way he's dealt with it. It's a massive disaster, on a scale we haven't even begun to fathom, and it could have been stopped by a valve that cost half a million dollars."

Clearly frustrated, he says, "I'm not a negative person," he says. "I'm just scared right now. No one really knows what's happening. From what we see on the surface, NOAA and the oceanographers can estimate what's coming out of the rig. But BP has denied scientists access to the footage of the gushing leak below the surface, so there's no way for us to know the actual realistic scale of the damage that's still happening. NOAA is a government administration! Why isn't Obama stepping in and demanding that footage, demanding a live view of what's going on?"

Last week, Somerhalder shot several PSAs to promote awareness. He suggests that visiting the Audubon Institute's website to learn more.

"I feel like I could cry right now," he admits sadly. "It's not just because it's my home. Just watching all these very proud, hardworking fishermen, who have never asked for anything in their lives, who support themselves and their families for generations with this one industry. Now it's likely to disappear. If it'll ever recover, we're talking decades and decades. It's beyond tragic."

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