This report suggests that so many skimmer vessels are being deployed to fight the BP oil spill that there are not enough in reserve to meet the required contingency levels for any future oil spills–and, hence, that the Obama administration may able to legally justify its desired drilling moratorium.
Are the skimmer deployment levels really that high? I’ve seen other reports asserting that there are large numbers of skimmers sitting around doing nothing because of bureaucratic confusion and waffling. I wonder if—anywhere in the country, in any government or private organization—there is a list of all skimming vessels and their current status.
Regardless of the truth about the severity of the skimming-vessel shortage, you can bet that the Obama administration and the “progressives” will use this as ammunition to shut down offshore oil drilling, as part of their generalized hostility toward all practical energy sources and their desire to punish the American people for what they see as our excessive prosperity and energy use.
The economic damage done to the gulf by shutting down drilling will dwarf that done by the oil spill.
Oil is the only real money maker in the gulf. Fishing and tourism combined bring in only a tenth of what oil does. Oil jobs are well paying jobs that support a large middle class. Fishing and tourism pay most workers little more than minimum wage.
Shutting down oil drilling risk turning Gulf communities into Detroit.
The article refers to the plans the oil companies submitted in order to get their permits, as required by law. The plans are copies of the Exxon Valdesz plans and, because they include plans for rescuing Artic Seals, are considered worthless by Congress and the MSM. However —
If 100,000 ocean going catamatans (1/4th of all currently locally licenced watercraft of this type) each showed up with a crew of 2, 10 empty barrels and a shop vac, on any given Sunday, and if BP paid $1000/barrel, then there would be 100,000 happy crews that would be $10,000 richer by lunch time, and the slick would be gone.
All BP would need to do is anchor a tanker near the slick to collect the oil and have enough cash on hand to pay for it.
Sol..there are probably lots of things that could be done if a little creativity were applied. In your scenario, the tanker would need an oil/water separator..maybe Kevin Costner’s device or maybe something more basic…so that the tanker wouldn’t fill up too rapidly with what would be mostly water. I suspect that an intensive program could manufacture a large number of such devices in a fairly short time period…REAL “green jobs.”
But that’s not the sort of thing that our Nobel-prize-winning energy secretary is likely to come up with.
The Chicago Way — Mayor Mike Bilandic and the Big Snowstorm. Complete with TV split screens of Hizonner saying the snow has been cleared and video of streets choked with snow.
David Foster
I agree that Obama and the members of his cabinet have no intention of cleaning up the spill. My comment merely points out how absurdly easy it would be to clean up this mess.
If its easy to clean up, then that is proof that Obmama does not want the spill cleaned up and it is proof that government actions that prevent the cleanup are carefully planned and executed to make sure that the oil fouls the water, destroys wetlands, renders beaches unusable, causes diseases and malignant growths and goes down in history as the greatest of all times man made disaster.
I expect Obama wants to use this disaster to achieve several legislative goals that are very important to him. He knows his party will be voted out of power. So he needs a disaster so profound that resulting legislation will stand long after he is gone – and he will see himself as one more prophet cast into the wilderness.
He wants to pass the equivalent of the Great Society or the New Deal. Why isn’t anyone floating a new name? Or is the new name “Hope and Change?”
EPA Purity of Essence
A collection of news reports about the bonehead decisions of our EPA and government about handling the oil spill.
Dutch skimmer ships have proven technology to quickly separate oil from water. They are prevented from cleanup work by an EPA directive, in place for years, that a ship may only discharge very clean water, even if it is separating oil from water that is heavily contaminated with oil.
That is also why the U.S. has no such ships. The need has been known, but the EPA won’t adopt a reasonable rule.
Ironically, there seems to be no rule preventing ships from spraying dispersants (detergents) onto the oil, obviously contaminating the water. What is going on here?
As the US vs Arizona lawsuit points out illgal aliens are like the oil spill. Obama can’t keep either from cross the border.