Is the US government doing enough on the oil spill?

by **menw** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:39 am

It has been weeks and tens of thousands of gallons of oil is being leaked on the gulf of mexico affecting thousands of lives whose livelihoods depend on the gulf. the biodiversity of the gulf has been compromised. still, we watch the oil leaks daily in huge volumes. with all our technological inventions and skills, humankind helplessly watches its downfall.

by **darrell** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:43 am

According to this article: http://article.nationalre... there are 2000 skimmers in the United States. 20 of them are being used for the Gulf Oil Spill. The Dutch offered their "super skimmers" to help, but President Obama refused to waive the Jones Act to allow them to help us. According to this article: http://thecable.foreignpo... 13 foreign entities have offered help with the oil spill clean up. The White House has refused all of them.

by **napayshni65** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:46 am

Actually there are currently 447 skimmers working in the Gulf. The problem with the rest of the fleet is that they are located on the west coast of the United States and in Alaska. According to the news down here, over 2,700 locally owned boats will be outfitted with skimming equipment asap, not only providing additional assistance but giving jobs to locals. I also read that skimmers and other equipment from the Netherlands, Norway, France, and Spain are headed this way and that Texas Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison has filed legislation to waive the Jones Act.

by **boyce** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:47 am

it is not only the environmental stress that is happening now. the worsening situation is also causing heightened trauma and psychological stress on people living near the coast and the rest of those affected. the faster they halt the leak, the better it will be. there is no clear and effective response so far from BP and government. sigh..

by **chason58** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:57 am

it is not only the environmental stress that is happening now. the worsening situation is also causing heightened trauma and psychological stress on people living near the coast and the rest of those affected. the faster they halt the leak, the better it will be. there is no clear and effective response so far from BP and government. sigh..

No, the Federal Government isn't doing enough. The local governments are doing their best with the resources they do have. Part of their problem is all the legal hoops the Federal Government is putting them through. BP is doing all it can but is hampered by simply being in over their heads from this type of spill and by the PR blitz that is trying to clean up their image but is having the opposite effect.

by **kendell** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:58 am

i think the U.S. government is doing all it can do. BP has more expertise in knowing about oil spills since their involved so much in the oil business. if the government felt they could do more i think they would had already done it with how bad its getting. its sad their wasn't better preparation in planning how to deal with such an oil spill we have going on now. it seems like bp would of had a better plan on how to deal with a mess like this. if bp can't get the spill to stop i wonder how long and how much oil is going to continue accumulating in the gulf. its a disturbing thought.

by **merla15** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:03 am

I really do not think so. The agenda here is never let a disaster go to waste and they are not.

by **valentino** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:11 am

At least this BP spill has given the US a firsthand taste of what Somalis and several developing coastal nations go through on a daily basis - as they are used to having toxic wastes and other pollutants washed up on their shores and thus degrading their ecosystem.

by **hillocke** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:14 am

America should have been taking some of those oil royalties and spending them on some kind of first response organization like FEMA. We could have at least stock up on boom material. The states have all been making money off this for generations so why are they not more prepared. It is their coast. We simply cannot allow drilling where we cannot clean it up. The government has no expertise to deal with this and if anyone would have suggested another government agency to deal with regulation they would have been thrown out of office.

by **colum** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:35 am

America should have been taking some of those oil royalties and spending them on some kind of first response organization like FEMA. We could have at least stock up on boom material. The states have all been making money off this for generations so why are they not more prepared. It is their coast. We simply cannot allow drilling where we cannot clean it up. The government has no expertise to deal with this and if anyone would have suggested another government agency to deal with regulation they would have been thrown out of office.

The people we have working on this issue are brainstorming ways to slow the flow knowing that the only sure way to stop it is by having relief wells in place to divert the flow to a rig. Also there are several other cracks that have opened up so there a lot of things they need to fix. BP is having the worst of the worst happen to them as they can't seem to recover from this mess. Also most of the American people will most likely not support them after this. The reason Obama has said no to these countries is we could have 1 million skimmers out there it still won't fix the problem. We would still have a huge amount of oil flowing out of a busted well a mile under the service that would be killing off near by ecosystems near the well. So having more skimmers is not the answer we are all looking for what we are trying to do is slow the flow down so that when the wells do connect there would be a very low flow coming out of it so that we can have a few skimmers out there 2,000 or so to clean the whole gulf up.

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