1 July 2010 Spill Crazy after all these years

1 July 2010 Spill Crazy after all these years


World's largest skimmer arrives in Gulf as Alex disrupts oil cleanup

By the CNN Wire Staff

July 1, 2010 2:34 p.m. EDT

The need for this vessel is urgent. The various parties involved are all guilty of delaying the deployment of what may become a primary tool in the clean-up process. There are legal restrictions that need to be eliminated. For instance, if the A-Whale is able to skim and separate oil from sea water, the water it returns to the Gulf will contain more oil residue than ships are allowed to discharge into U.S. waters when clearing ballast tanks, bilges, etc. At a time when the continued viability of the Gulf is threatened there should be an automatic variance/dispensation provided without debate, lawsuits, or other interference due to environmental laws and regulations.

BP needs a contract with the A-Whale’s owners. Again, maritime and contract lawyers should have boarded the ship as it entered U.S. waters to pick up signed copies of faxed contracts and other documents needed for legal purposes.

Coast Guard inspectors should have boarded the ship at the same time to complete any and all necessary inspections.

The incident commander should be on top of these matters and should brook no disagreement from any quarter. He should let it be known that he is speaking with the authority of the office of the POTUS in all matters regarding this disaster. The White House should have already provided this back up and then should allow the incident commander and his choices of assistants and experts to run the operation.

BP should be standing ready to fund and provide anything the incident commander wants. The relief wells process should continue. They may prove effective.

One of the major problems we face is that there is no one with special knowledge concerning deep water drilling and well maintenance on the government payroll. The experts in these fields all work for private industry. Our government, despite the demands of many ill-informed citizens, is not equipped to work on this well. I’ve seen evidence of how ill-informed our populace is in monitoring commentary on various forums. One acquaintance, retired Air Force, is demanding that the Navy take over skimming operations. Our Navy is not equipped with skimmer vessels. He and several like him. Also fault the government for not having every available skimmer craft in the world’s fleets deployed in the Gulf of Mexico. Again, those craft are no ocean-going in nature and would have to be loaded onto cargo ships and then ferried to the Gulf’s various ports for deployment. Such a process would be governed by the availability of sufficient cargo vessels to transport the skimmers and by the normal operational speeds of cargo ships. Yet he and his friends, former military all, have already shifted all blame to the Obama government.

They conveniently forget that the deregulation that most likely allowed this disaster to happen took place under the Bush administration. This spill is a gift from Bush/Cheney to the world. They make the same mistakes when discussing the economic melt-down that we are still trying to recover from. They are firm believers in providing tax cuts to the ultra wealthy and to corporations; claiming jobs will magically appear. If that were so, we’d have seen job increasing in 2007-2008 rather than watching them continue to pour offshore in order to increase profits for corporations.

To be sure, the Obama administration is ill-prepared to deal with the oil spill and the economy. It faces obstruction from the GOP at every turn. It seems to lack any contacts with technical people among its inner circles. Therefore it winds up, it appears to me, approaching the disaster as something that can be studied and discussed endlessly. Such approach is little better and no more effective than declaring “prayer days” around the Gulf Coast. While prayer can supposedly do no harm, the time and energy wasted in organizing such efforts would be better spent finding mechanisms to allow the vast numbers of people thrown out of work by the disaster to begin re-education for new jobs. They are not likely to work in their old jobs again. Yet, should such suggestions filter down from D.C., they would be met with derisive comments about “community organizers” and “doing nothing about unemployment.” The folks who will be losing all they have will somehow be able to forget that it is the GOP that is blocking extension of unemployment benefits and many other programs that would make life easier for the people on the Gulf Coast and for the rest of the nation’s unemployed.

Still, as the oil washes ashore, the GOP and its demagogues are doing all they can to lay the blame for all the nation’s problems on Obama. Palin has publically denied favoring deep water drilling and the lie goes unchallenged by the Democrats. The GOP will use this disaster to fill the airwaves with commercials that are blatant lies as they attempt to negate any positive results and/or programs that Obama might be able to somehow implement. The irony of hearing demands for government help from public officials who, in March, were screaming for less and less government and bragging about not needing Obama’s help for anything, is amusing at a dark and deep level.

I know who should be missing meals and losing homes. It’s not the people on the Gulf Coast.