Why Does Obama Refuse International Help on Gulf Oil Spill?

Wed Jun 09, 2010 6:47 pm » by **Lighthouse**

By Dian L. Chu, Economic Forecasts & Opinions

Despite the vow by President Obama to keep the Gulf oil spill a top priority until the damage is cleaned up, 50 days after the BP rig exploded, a definitive date and meaningful solution is yet to be determined for the worst oil spill in the U.S. history.

So, you would think if someone is willing to handle the clean-up with equipment and technology not available in the U.S., and finishes the job in shorter time than the current estimate, the U.S. should jump on the offer.

But it turned out to be quite the opposite.

According to Foreign Policy, thirteen entities had offered the U.S. oil spill assistance within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion. They were the governments of Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.

The U.S. response - Thank you, but no thank you, we've got it.

"..While there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet, the U.S. Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need in the near future."
Blame It On The Jones Act?

Separately, Belgian newspaper De Standaard also reported Belgian and Dutch dredgers have technology in-house to fight the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but the Jones Act forbids them to work in the U.S.

A Belgian group--DEME-- contends it can clean up the oil in three to four months with specialty vessel and equipment, rather than an estimated nine months if done only by the U.S. The article noted there are no more than 5 or 6 of those ships in the world and the top specialist players are the two Belgian companies- DEME and De Nul - and their Dutch competitors.

The U.S. does not have the similar technology and vessel to accomplish the cleanup task because those ships would cost twice as much to build in the U.S. than in the Far East. The article further criticizes this "great technological delay" is a direct consequence of the Jones Act.

Continued on:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/why-did-us-refuse-international-help-gulf-oil-spill

Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:33 pm » by **Flecktarn**

hes also not doing enough to force action on bp ,the locals want to help but have so far have not been involved ,or why has he not used the full man power of the navy and national guard

Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:36 pm » by **Savwafair2012**

Why isn't the US Navy all over this are they unable to send sub's down there? With full HD image's I'd be real intrested to see what the real images are.

Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:38 pm » by **Septeloid**

Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:58 am » by **Oldscho0l**

savwafair2012 wrote:Why isn't the US Navy all over this are they unable to send sub's down there? With full HD image's I'd be real intrested to see what the real images are.

Navy subs can't go anywhere near that depth.

I was wondering same thing, but found out they can't.