Today, 70 days into the oill spill in the Gulf, the U.S. accepted international assistance from 12 countries and foreign organizations to help with the mess.
The State Department has not yet identified exactly which ones. Another offer of help, the largest skimmer in the world— the A-Whale, reportedly capable of cleaning 500,000 barrels of oil from the Gulf per day— will arrive today in the Gulf but needs clearance from the federal government before it can start its work.
“The Coast Guard research and development center has a team of personnel that are ready to observe the tests to test the efficacy of the vessels systems, as well as its ability to safely operate in that area down there,” Coast Guard spokesman Ron LaBrec told The Daily Caller.
The ship’s captain was hopeful clearance could be gotten for the ship during its trip from Norfolk to the Gulf, but it looks like testing will take place in the Gulf. The giant skimmer has never been used on a spill of this magnitude, but a spokesman for the Taiwanese company that owns it is speaking Barack Obama’s language, so maybe that will help:
The issue of international offers of help has been addressed several times during the oil spill, but it’s never been terribly clear what the hold-up was in securing it. It is the State Department’s duty to formally accept offers of international help, as it has done today, but the leadership in the Gulf must make the final decision on whether such help will be used on the ground, according to the State Department.
On May 27, ABC News reported that 17 countries had offered to help with the oil spill, yet offers from only two countries had been accepted. That night, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked Obama about those offers of help, but got little in the way of an answer:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, let me distinguish between — if the question is, are we doing everything perfectly out there, then the answer is absolutely not. We can always do better.
If the question is, are we, each time there is an idea, evaluating it and making a decision, is this the best option that we have right now, based on how quickly we can stop this leak and how much damage can we mitigate, then the answer is yes…
So the point is, on each of these points that you just mentioned, if the job of our response team is to say, OK, if 17 countries have offered equipment and help, let’s evaluate what they’ve offered, how fast can it get here; is it actually going to be redundant or will it actually add to the overall effort?
Because, in some cases, more may not actually be better, and decisions have been made, based on the best information available, that says, here’s what we need right now; it may be that, a week from now or two weeks from now or a month from now the offers from some of those countries might be more effectively utilized.
On June 15, ABC News again reported on international assistance, finding that the State Department had sent two missives looking for specific help in the Gulf after first announcing May 5 it did not need help. By that time, the U.S. had accepted assistance from four countries — Mexico, Norway, Canada, the Netherlands.
The first notice was sent just days after the US first said it did not need any assistance from other countries in containing the spill, which had not yet reached shore.
“While there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet, the U.S. Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need in the near future,” the State Department said in a statement on May 5.
I’m sure the State Department would argue that it simply took time to evaluate and inventory the resources offered by different countries and organizations and implemented them as quickly and effectively as possible. Certainly, in a large crisis, you don’t want redundant or incompetent help from other countries clogging up your response. But some of the chief complaints of local governments and workers have been insufficient boom and skimmers, which seem to be exactly what many of these foreign entities are offering, so I’m skeptical that the State Department was entirely on its game, here.
The Heritage Foundation offers two rather simple ways (on a list of 10) that Obama could help with the Gulf by simply lifting bureaucratic barriers to the clean up:
8. Temporarily Loosen Coast Guard Inspections: In early June, sixteen barges that were vacuuming oil out of the Gulf were ordered to halt work. The Coast Guard had the clean-up vessels sit idle as they were inspected for fire extinguishers and life vests. Maritime safety is clearly a priority, but speed is of the essence in the Gulf waters. The U.S. Coast Guard should either temporarily loosen its inspection procedures or implement a process that allows inspections to occur as the ships operate. For more information, click here.
There’s nothing that can get in the way of common sense like a government regulator. It’s unclear whether the EPA rule is actually causing a delay with the A-Whale. There have been conflicting reports about the EPA’s environmental concerns about the vessel, and the EPA did not respond with a comment for The Daily Caller today. Whatever the problem is, let’s hope the A-Whale is ready for service and on the sea before long.
