BP Clean-up Chaos Engulfs Obama

June 16, 2010 (LPAC)—The so-called oil-spill clean-up of the Gulf Coast conducted by BP and Obama's Unifed Area Command, is a sick pretense, instead of a warfare-scale operation. Every day, this is documented by new scandals, as the Deepwater Horizon oil shows up farther eastward, now proceeding along the Gulf coast of Florida. What's lacking are the skimming systems, oil/water centrifuges, oil pumps, boom and relevant vessels, and manpower—plus a crash program of relevant new technologies (e.g., oil-eating microorganisms), along with mobilizing for maximum spill-handling capacity on the sea at the Macondo well site. This means expropriating BP and getting on with emergency measures.

In fact, there should be pre-positioning of coastal protection now on the Atlantic Coast, for Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, for the Intercoastal Waterway, in the likely event of the Deepwater Horison spill going into the Loop Current, then into the Gulf Stream. For all the coastlines, including in the Gulf, there should be pre-staging of huge amounts of contingency equipment for when storm currents force oil inland. None of this is being mustered at all.

Of the 17 nations that have offered help, only four of their offers have been accepted. Aid was accepted from Mexico (early May), Norway (early May), The Netherlands (May 23), Canada (June 4).

A defensive press release was issued on this by the State Department ("Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: International Offers of Assistance"), expressing gratitude to the 17 nations, listing them, and then concluding the release with a s**t-eating paragraph, saying that the offers came with the expectation that the USA/BP would pay for the aid. In other words, BP/Obama nixed the aid!

The release text states: "With few exceptions, these international offers of assistance are made on a reimbursable basis, which means that the assistance is provided only if paid for by the recipient..."

Chaos is spreading as localities are forced back onto their own attempts at, "anything that works." On June 12, 200 people rallied against BP at the Alabama Point Bridge, Alabama, on the particular fact that nothing was being done at the Perdido Pass, to diminish entry of oil into the Intracoastal Waterway.

Okaloosa County Defies Obama/BP

Last night, the County Commission of Okaloosa County, Florida (east of Pensacola), voted unanimously to give their emergency management team authority to take whatever action they think best, to prevent oil from entering the Choctawhatchee Bay, through the East Pass. County leaders met in emergency session alongside those of the Destin City Council, in a chamber full of furious residents. Commission Chairman Wayne Harris said, "We made the decision legislatively to break the laws if necessary. We will do whatever it takes to protect our county's waterways and were prepared to go to jail to do it," he told the NWF news service (North West Florida). County action can thus proceed without waiting for approval from the Emergency Operations Center of the state, in Tallahassee, or the Unified Area Command spill center in Mobile.

The NWF yesterday described what the county commission has authorized to be done: "to spend $200,000 to pay for an underwater air curtain designed to push oil up where it can be collected and $16,500 a day to operate and maintain it.

"He [the county's Public Safety Director Dino Villani] has authority to, without a nod from the U.S. Coast Guard, deploy barges, weighted so that they'll sit low in the water across the entrance to the pass.

"He is also authorized to look into a slip curtain, another underwater oil-catching device."

Some of the enraged onlookers wanted to authorize filling in the pass completely, to shut it down, but this was rejected as a bad idea.

Placquemines Parish's Nungesser: 'We're Using Wetvacs"!

Billy Nungesser, President of Placquemines Parish, Louisiana, ridiculed the wait-and-stall mode of BP/Unified Command, by saying that his people went out and bought WetVacs (the ShopVac-brand heavy-duty vacuum cleaners, for fluid refuse). They put them on boats; they suck up oil fine. Why can't the government do something! Nungesser told Congress last week, that Port-a-Potty vaccuum machines also work fine. He said on CNN last night, that BP has agreed to pay for 32 WetVacs. Where is the government? How can you call this a clean-up?