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After 66 days, the cleanup effort has picked up about 600,000 barrels of oil. This giant skimmer can handle 500,000 barrels per day. Why is it not there?
"The vessel's billionaire owner, Nobu Su, the CEO of Taiwanese shipping company TMT Group, said the ship would float across the Gulf "like a lawn mower cutting the grass," ingesting up to 500,000 barrels of oil-contaminated water a day.
But a number of hurdles stand in his way. TMT officials said the company does not yet have government approval to assist in the cleanup or a contract with BP to perform the work."
"TMT also paid to fly in Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University, to get a look at the massive skimmer.
Overton blasted BP and the federal government for a lack of effort and coordination in their dual oil-spill response and made a plea to the government to allow the A Whale to join the cleanup operation."
"To join the fight, the ship also might require separate waivers from the Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
"The ship would take in oily water and transfer it into specialized storage tanks on the flanks of the vessel. From there, the oil-fouled seawater would be pumped into internal tanks where the oil would separate naturally from the water.
After the separation process, the oil would be transferred to other tankers or shore-based facilities while the remaining water would be pumped back into the gulf.
Because the process wouldn't remove all traces of oil from the seawater, TMT will likely have to gain a special permit from the EPA, said Scott H. Segal of the Washington lobbying firm, Bracewell &Giuliani, which TMT has retained to help negotiate with federal regulators."
"TMT also is firm is working with the Coast Guard to gain approval to operate in the gulf, which may require a waiver from a 90-year-old maritime act that restricts foreign-flagged vessels from operating in U.S. waters, said Bob Grantham, a TMT project officer.
Connaughton, the former federal Maritime Administrator, said he doesn't believe the A Whale would require a waiver from the Jones Act, a federal law signed in 1920 that sought to protect U.S. maritime interests.
Coast Guard inspectors toured the ship for about four hours on Thursday to determine the ship's efficacy and whether it was fit to be deployed, said Capt. Matthew Sisson, commanding officer of the Coast Guard's Research and Development arm in New London, Conn.
"We take all offers of alternative technology very seriously," Sisson said. The ship, he said, is "an impressive engineering feat."
He would not offer a timetable for Coast Guard approval of the vessel, but said he will try to "turn around a report … as soon as humanely possible."
A swift and efficient clean-up of this oil leak is counter-productive to the agenda of this administration. The willingness of this administration to sacrifice the gulf ecosystem and the wellbeing of those peolple living along the golf coast is evident by this administration's actions in hindering clean-up progress by the states.
10 A Whales couldn't begin to clean up the Gulf Mess. It will stand as perhaps the most egregious example of the Anglo-Saxon homo sapiens urge to destroy its planet. How many Bottlenose Dolphins will this disaster kill or sicken? Unknown. Another sentient species destroyed by human greed. When your water heater explodes do you use paper towels? What about when your town floods? Can you dry out your house when you can't even find it? Some disasters are beyond fixing. This is one of them. It simply should not have happened. Period. But not the end of the story.
10 A Whales couldn't begin to clean up the Gulf Mess. It will stand as perhaps the most egregious example of the Anglo-Saxon homo sapiens urge to destroy its planet. How many Bottlenose Dolphins will this disaster kill or sicken? Unknown. Another sentient species destroyed by human greed. When your water heater explodes do you use paper towels? What about when your town floods? Can you dry out your house when you can't even find it? Some disasters are beyond fixing. This is one of them. It simply should not have happened. Period. But not the end of the story.
H
While I agree with your thought that this should not have happened and that it can't be reversed, your post misses the reality that it did happen. Now that it has, the A-whale seems to have the greatest capacity to minimize damage of any of the tools at hand, but they still have to wait on permits and waivers.
The failure to waive the Jones Act is mind boggling. It's all that stands in the way of all this help that countries are offering, and again the Administration is dithering. All I can think is that it's to protect the unions, but how much good is that going to do the members if their economy, their pristine Gulf, marshes and coastline, their businesses and livelihood are destroyed?
In an emergency such as this, no one group should receive special favors or considerations over another. Everyone is suffering, and will pay the price. The cost is going up by the hour.
Bascailly from what was reported the skimmers offer by other nations were not aloowed because of the Jones act. Its limits actio for say a injury in osurt if the pwerson is a alien and has section devoted to off shore activities. One reporter said it was a act to keep employeees from foreigh countries from offshore jobs here. Reading it seems like a foreign compnay could not use their crews because of liabilty jurisdiction for their employees.This is likely why we see shrimp boats instead of ship skimers offer.
10 A Whales couldn't begin to clean up the Gulf Mess. It will stand as perhaps the most egregious example of the Anglo-Saxon homo sapiens urge to destroy its planet. How many Bottlenose Dolphins will this disaster kill or sicken? Unknown. Another sentient species destroyed by human greed. When your water heater explodes do you use paper towels? What about when your town floods? Can you dry out your house when you can't even find it? Some disasters are beyond fixing. This is one of them. It simply should not have happened. Period. But not the end of the story.
H
Spot frigging on!
It's simply stupefying to read how twisted some of the comments are on this thread.
1. The MMS was working hand in hand with the oil industry. Thanks GOilP! Thanks Dumbya and cheney. When will you people learn that if a penny is to be gained by these vultures, whether it's banks, Wallstreet, oil and gas, or any industry; they will not regulate themselves. They just won't do it.
2. BP took too many shortcuts to list here. Like a culture plate with many colonies.....TMTC.
Deflection may convince yourselves that this catashophy is the 'guvment's' fault, but the primary blame lies with BP. Period.
What we've been left with is an ecosystem on the verge of crashing; an ocean full of an endocrine disruptor that has NEVER had any toxicology studies AND has chemical constituents that are protected by proprietary; an ocean with waves of oil below surface that we do not know how far it will travel; loss of jobs, both land and sea; loss of life from at least four of the five of the Kingdoms: Monera, Protista, Plant, and Animal. Fungi? Don't know.
Forr the human aspect post BP: Get ready for a drastic increase of depression and suicides family stife, increased drug and alcohol abuse, and increase in divorce. A culture is breaking down and these things are the aftermath.
Anyone who makes this horrific, killing of culture, life and ecosystems into an excuse to blame Obama is choosing to swat a roach when you should be exterminating the source. The source are the crooked, lying, unethical corporations AND politicians that always put a dime or their next campaign contribution before safety and protection of people and this planet.
It's simply stupefying to read how twisted some of the comments are on this thread.
1. The MMS was working hand in hand with the oil industry. Thanks GOilP! Thanks Dumbya and cheney. When will you people learn that if a penny is to be gained by these vultures, whether it's banks, Wallstreet, oil and gas, or any industry; they will not regulate themselves. They just won't do it.
2. BP took too many shortcuts to list here. Like a culture plate with many colonies.....TMTC.
Deflection may convince yourselves that this catashophy is the 'guvment's' fault, but the primary blame lies with BP. Period.
What we've been left with is an ecosystem on the verge of crashing; an ocean full of an endocrine disruptor that has NEVER had any toxicology studies AND has chemical constituents that are protected by proprietary; an ocean with waves of oil below surface that we do not know how far it will travel; loss of jobs, both land and sea; loss of life from at least four of the five of the Kingdoms: Monera, Protista, Plant, and Animal. Fungi? Don't know.
Forr the human aspect post BP: Get ready for a drastic increase of depression and suicides family stife, increased drug and alcohol abuse, and increase in divorce. A culture is breaking down and these things are the aftermath.
Anyone who makes this horrific, killing of culture, life and ecosystems into an excuse to blame Obama is choosing to swat a roach when you should be exterminating the source. The source are the crooked, lying, unethical corporations AND politicians that always put a dime or their next campaign contribution before safety and protection of people and this planet.
Let us not hold the government accountable for the failure to uphold license requirements for BP. Let us not hold Obama, commander in chief, responsible for his orders to the Coast Guard to board and force boats trying to clean-up this mess near the Louisiana shoreline and estuaries to stand down. Let us sweep under the rug Obam's rejection of foriegn aid with the clean-up efforts 3 days after the rig blew up.
It is a clear as the tarballs in the sand that if this administration had acted upon what happened in federal waters with any urgency ecosystems now doomed could have likely have had damage minimilized.
There is no defense for what BP did or its abysmal safety record. Why then would this adminstration allow it to drill sans the required licenses. This did happen on Obama's watch and yet he continues to hinder clean-up efforts... .
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