To be fair, late yesterday word came that the President is finally accepting some foreign assistance to help temper the spill. Of course, it happened 67 days after the first offers came in, but we can let bygones be bygones, right?
No, we can't. And why not?
Check this out.
Why does neither the U.S. government nor U.S. energy companies have on hand the cleanup technology available in Europe? Ironically, the superior European technology runs afoul of U.S. environmental rules. The voracious Dutch vessels, for example, continuously suck up vast quantities of oily water, extract most of the oil and then spit overboard vast quantities of nearly oil-free water. Nearly oil-free isn’t good enough for the U.S. regulators, who have a standard of 15 parts per million — if water isn’t at least 99.9985% pure, it may not be returned to the Gulf of Mexico.That percentage isn't a typo.
How about cleaning up the coasts. Saving some wildlife. And helping the economy down there by changing this bureaucratic nonsense and changing that purity requirement to 99% even?
Idiots.
"Finally?" Really? Tsk, tsk. Those silly facts getting in the way of the talking points of Fox News. You *might* have more of an impact on actual persuadable voters if you stick to facts rather than hyperbole.
ReplyDeleteNice try. There's been at least 15 foreign ships helping, no need to waivethe Jones Act.
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/06/oil-spill-foreign-help-and-the-jones-act/
Additionally, the implications of cutting funding to research at institutions such as the EPA, NIH and NSF are suddenly relevant in your condemnation of technology being behind Europe. If research budgets hadn't been slashed, even the private sector might have been on the forefront of emerging technologies that could have prevented either the need for deep drilling, the catastrophe itself, and be on par with the European technology your link triumphs.
ReplyDeleteBut investing in government research, according to "TEA" partiers and the GOP is borderline socialism. If you don't invest and get creative NOW it comes and bites you LATER. The same mechanism that could have kept us on par with Europe (research in novel areas) is the same mechanism you dumped on in a previous post (stem cell research).
Is this blog post a request for us to become MORE LIKE the Dutch or only in ways you perceive it to embarass a sitting President?