Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana had a simple idea. Send oil sucking barges out with trained crews. According to ABC News, the barges are now sitting idle, by order of the US Coast Guard. According to ABC News, the barges were sucking up oil up until Tuesday. Now as thousands of gallons of oil are being sewed into the Gulf every hour, the barges are being kept idle. ABC News reports as folows on the reasons why.
“The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.”
Governor Jindal has reportedly been trying to reach the White House to get the effective and simple cleanup program going. Why Obama and Jindal do not have a direct phone line at this late stage of the crisis is not explained. The oil that was being sucked up could have been sold to offset a fraction of the costs of this crisis. But the feds seem to be able to do nothing but play obstructionist games with a governor who is doing his job.
The latest word is that the barges now have the green light. Unfortunately, a cumbersom alphabet soup of federal agencies is turning the cleanup and stoppage efforts into a bureaucratic nightmare. ABC News quotes Alabama Governor Bob Riley as follows.
The governor said the problem is there’s still no single person giving a “yes” or “no.” While the Gulf Coast governors have developed plans with the Coast Guard’s command center in the Gulf, things begin to shift when other agencies start weighing in, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
There should be more barges down in the Gulf. And the feds should be supporting and not obstructing governors in the area. It is tragic that bureaucratic stupidity is compounding the negligence of BP that led to this mess. We should be asking the governors what they need, help them get what they want and to get out of the way.
One last question that I have not heard asked. The US rushes to disasters all over the world. Who is rushing to help us out ? The British maybe? If not, then what are they waiting for?
