Oh Good Grief: Dutch Consul Blasts US Foot-Dragging on Oil Spill

[Nuclear Unicorn]

Three days after BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, the Netherlands offered to help. Ships could have set about clearing the oil using Dutch sweeping arms, but the US government didn’t take up the offer. Dutch Consul General Geert Visser in Houston told Radio Netherlands Worldwide he was disappointed.

The US response, says Mr Visser: “‘Thanks for your help, but at the moment we can manage ourselves.’ And that was it.” He puts the reticence down to pride.

Late
Weeks later the pride was forgotten and the US came to the Dutch for help after all. “Almost a month later – a month too late, of course – Washington did make a request to send the sweeping arms to Houston in Texas,” says Mr Visser. “They arrived in three 747s, ten days later. They were then transported to Louisiana to be mounted on ships.”

US ships are now fitted with the arms and should be operational within a few days. Each pair of arms can clear around 20,000 tons of oil a day.

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-consul-slams-us-foot-dragging-oil-spill

OK, so we never had any fire booms (granted, turning watery pollution into smokey pollution is of dubious value) but this is inexplicable.

Wouldn't you rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it?

[davidinalameda]

1. I've been defending the obama administration against some right wingers

because they're comparing this to Bush and Katrina

I hate to admit it-it may be a fair comparison when all is said and done

[dgibby]

2. This is indefensible.

Heads should roll over this.

[gateley]

3. I think during the first 3 days 'we' were still getting a grip on what was going on -

Initially no one seemed to be aware of the magnitude of the explosion (except BP and they weren't being forthright). So in the first days we may have thought we DID have what we needed. As the horror continued to unfold, and it became more obvious that BP was jerking us around on every level, that's probably when they decided to seek help from wherever they could.

I can't imagine us turning down assistance if we believed it was needed - in fact that's evidenced by our request a few weeks later.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. Hope for the best...

...but always plan for the worst.

Failing to presume for spills of this magnitude could occur is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Now we're supposed to accept "I thought BP could ahndle it" as an excuse? Since when are we in the business of trusting corporatists?


I know my tone isn't very civil right now. I'm not mad at you. I'm not yelling at you. I'm just stunned, frustrated and disappointed.

[gateley]

5. I know you're not yelling at me, and I understand your anger and frustration

(and I share it). But I think going into it we were unprepared for the amount of duplicity BP would engage in. I think if I were prez, I'd feel that they were a successful company, (not a fly-by-night), had handled situations like this before, and would work on stopping the flow since it would be in their best financial interest to do so. It's been a learning process for all involved and unfortunately I think it became obvious too late that BP was fucking with us.

And just now we're learning the submission is full of inconsistencies, cut and pastes, and basically worthless - we learn more every day.

Realistically, during the first three days, your guy would most likely look at the paperwork, see that BP had said they had the resources to deal with an 'accident' and feel they were pursuing that.

My complaint is that it took 3 weeks for them to begin soliciting help from elsewhere. Kind of like it took too long for Obama to realize bi-partisanship wasn't ever going to happen. My complaint is also that Salazar is still there (actually, that he was put there to begin with). I'm angry about a lot of things regarding this, but not that they didn't jump at the chance for assistance three days into it -- sad -- but not angry.

:hug:

[Abq_Sarah]

6. sorry..

responded to wrong post

[Abq_Sarah]

7. After a week

It was pretty clear the early estimates were complete garbage.

It took them a month before they finally requested what they needed.


Major oil spill events are supposed to be coordinated by the fed. They changed the law after the Exxon Valdez to make sure it wouldn't be left up to oil companies to act swiftly and decisively.

Looks like they need to work a little more at applying what they do in drills to real life:

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/features/apr10/sons.h...

[Greyhound]

8. It depends on the objective, and I think it is clear to all but the most determinedly

misguided, that alleviating damage to the ecosphere and saving life and the livelihoods of average folks was way down the priority list.

[amborin]

9. this is just criminal, the whole mismanagement is; the Dutch offered skimmer ships & EPA said NO

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8303895

[struggle4progress]

10. The Dutch Caribbean might have good reason for concern: distilled seawater

is the only potable water in some places

[PufPuf23]

18. Yep the Antilles and Aruba

The Dutch are smart and know the oil business as much as anyone in the world - Royal Dutch Shell

The refineries on Aruba and Curacao were the two largest in the world 70 years ago and were instrumental in WWII. The dutch sabotaged their oil operations in the far east when overrun by the Japanese, The usa had a oil embargo against Japan before Pearl Harbor and Standard oil of new jersey (rockefeller) and Shell were by far the two largest oil companies in the world in the 1930s

[KonaKane]

11. Hell, DU attacks him for it every day.

The righteous indignation over the Dutch doing it now is a bit disingenuous.

[ladjf]

12. Why did we turn the Dutch offer down initially?

[northernlights]

14. Because BP said there was no leak and then said it was very small

and somebody stupidly believed them.

Bush and heckovajob Brownie lost a city.

Obama has lost the Gulf of Mexico.

[ladjf]

15. We are living in "bad times". Possibly the greatest damage might

be to the mental health of the American people. We are being bombarded daily by inextricable evidence that the Country we have loved for so long is in a total mess. It seems that those running the Country are either crooks, cowards or idiots.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. American Exceptionalism!

We are exceptionally pigheaded and stupid!

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Try to find some corroboration for this story. I tried and failed.

This story has been circulating for weeks, but this is the only place it appears. It has not been reported on by any other news agency.

[TheKentuckian]

17. Can't ask for help or mobilize assets and still play the "BP has got this!" game

Nobody and I do mean nobody with the keys to the store had the environment, wildlife, or the way of life of a lot of Americans at the top of their lists.