From the Financial Post. (H/T Ace of Spades via ECM)
Excerpt:
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.
When ships in U.S. waters take in oil-contaminated water, they are forced to store it. As U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the official in charge of the clean-up operation, explained in a press briefing on June 11, “We have skimmed, to date, about 18 million gallons of oily water–the oil has to be decanted from that [and] our yield is usually somewhere around 10% or 15% on that.” In other words, U.S. ships have mostly been removing water from the Gulf, requiring them to make up to 10 times as many trips to storage facilities where they off-load their oil-water mixture, an approach Koops calls “crazy.”
Here’s a recent update from Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit.
Excerpt:
** The feds only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries a month after the disaster.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignored oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** There are no skimmer boats off the coast of Mississippi.
** The massive A-Boat skimmer won’t be allowed to join the cleanup effort until the Coast Guard and the EPA figure out whether it meets their standards.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ’s and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.
I thought that Mr. “A-Unicorn-In-Every-Pot” was going to cool the Earth and make the oceans stop their rising or whatever… Beh! He can’t even fix this oil spill!
WINTERY KNIGHT 
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a fan of our president. I don’t like his politics. I don’t like his worldview. I don’t like his values. I would do nothing to defend the man. So this isn’t in defense of Mr. Obama. It is in opposition to … odd arguments.
I have repeatedly heard these kinds of complaints: “The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ’s and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.” I’m baffled. What, exactly, is the expectation of the people of the United States of a good president. If a crisis arises, of course we want him to deal with the crisis. Does that mean that this is all he should do? Does that mean that, in the midst of the crisis, he ought to be doing absolutely nothing else? I mean, in this example, we surely would expect a good president to order the steps required to solve the problem, but would we also require him to take those steps himself, monitor it minute by minute, and cease all other activity until it is accomplished? Was President Bush equally negligent for doing ANYTHING except solving the terrorist problem?
I’m no Obama fan, but this particular argument seems unfair to me. I’m just sayin’.
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I understand your concern, Stan. But think of it this way: Bush took a little heat for golfing after sending troops to Iraq. He elected to quit golf. The symbolism of the prez golfing, partying, going to ball games while a disaster or crisis is ongoing was supposedly a concern during the Bush years. Considering all he has said about himself, the concern here is a bit subdued. I mean if it was over by now while he golfed (and poorly it appears), it would at least support his grandiose claims about himself. But as it drags on, it seems his image could use such symbolism as backing off on personal fun-time, at least that which appears before the public eye.
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