Posted on 06/08/2010 6:49:06 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
He figured there’d be a demand so he started cranking out a supply, and … crickets.
He’s already had a representative from BP visit his factory and inspect his product. The governor of Maine, John Baldacci, visited the facility and made a video plea to no one in particular to close the deal. Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins wrote a letter on May 21 to the secretary of the Interior, the administrator of NOAA, and the commandant of the Coast Guard to alert them to the existence of Packgen, their supply of boom, and their demonstrated capacity to make more. I have no idea if those are the correct persons and agencies to notify about the manufacturing capacity and the availability of boom. One wonders if the senators know…
The ASTM specifications for containment boom aren’t rocket science, and Lapoint’s business was used to dealing with that sort of thing. So Lapoint took a chance and started manufacturing oil boom, figuring that Packgen would be able to sell it to help in the containment and cleanup effort. He added shifts and employees, and started cranking out the oil boom right away. It was a big financial risk — and he knew that — but he also figured that in an emergency of that magnitude, you had to act quickly, and figured that BP and the federal government would have to act quickly as well, and every single foot of boom he could make would be useful and in immediate demand.
He figured wrong.
Watch the clip (both clips, actually). Lapointe seems to be under the impression that he’s stuck waiting for BP to approve a purchase, but that can’t be true, can it? Surely the feds can step in and buy as much boom as they want. They’re still the ones in charge of protecting the coastline, aren’t they? Or has Kickass now farmed out that task to a guy he won’t even talk to on the phone? Remember, Jindal was demanding millions of feet of boom just a week or so after the rig exploded and, as of May 24, was still millions of feet short. I sure hope we’re going to find out tomorrow that Packgen’s material simply isn’t equal to the task and needs to be rejected, because if it turns out this is purely a matter of red tape — and if BP’s new claim that it’s ready to capture “virtually all” of the remaining oil doesn’t pan out — then Jim Hoft’s Katrina school-bus comparison is going to be awfully popular awfully soon.
And that, my child, is how communism works...
Rino Senators didn’t help. Why should Obama help people who are often on board with him without cost.
(A) If a discharge, or a substantial threat of a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance from a vessel, offshore facility, or onshore facility is of such a size or character as to be a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States (including but not limited to fish, shellfish, wildlife, other natural resources, and the public and private beaches and shorelines of the United States), the President shall direct all Federal, State, and private actions to remove the discharge or to mitigate or prevent the threat of the discharge.
(B) In carrying out this paragraph, the President may, without regard to any other provision of law governing contracting procedures or employment of personnel by the Federal Government–
(i) remove or arrange for the removal of the discharge, or mitigate or prevent the substantial threat of the discharge; and
(ii) remove and, if necessary, destroy a vessel discharging, or threatening to discharge, by whatever means are available.
Another lesson learned that the Obama is destroying us; not helping us.
What do you expect from someone who voted present so many times as a senator?
If he’s bought off Rahm the way Goldman did, then this guy would have his orders and he’d be rich.
Don’t he know how to DO stuff? I mean Johnny Huang knew that years ago, and he was just a PRC agent of influence..!
Obama doesn't want America's industrial power to help prevent an ecological disaster. He wants America's industrial power to die.
Obama’s ineptness and downright stupidity is amazing.
How many more disasters will it take?
Anyone else and they would be out the door
the first 6 months or less.
The Chicago way is not to do business with companies that haven't provided payoffs in the form of campaign contributions. Meanwhile the oil spill in the Gulf widens while the Bamster dithers.
Obama Has NO wish to prevent the spread of this oil spill.It won’t benefit him politicly or financially.
He wants to put the Petroleum Industry out of business.
We need side-by-side photos of Ray Nagins school buses underwater in New Orleans next to a photo of all those oil booms sitting idle in a Maine warehouse.
Reminds me of Nagin’s flooded out New Orleans school buses.
We are witnessing the planned intentional destruction of our country.
The federal government was supposed to have a bunch of those but onlt had 1 on the entire Gulf Coast.
I’m afraid I forget the details, but there’s a company that makes an extremely poisonous substance that makes the spilled oil sink beneath the surface. And it was asserted that someone on Obama’s team was making a ton of money through that company.
So, why do the sensible thing, which would seem to be to collect it on the surface and possibly burn it, when you can poison the Gulf even more by sinking it, and at the same time have a stream of money pouring into your pockets?
Since I don’t recall the name of the company, I can’t vouch for this, but that’s what I read. Maybe someone can fill in the details.
The problem is that Obama never had to DO anything. He sailed thru several colleges without even attending classes. I wonder if he even took tests. Editor of the Harvard Law Review? No problem. Just let everyone else do the work. He never ONCE even wrote an article for that periodical while supposedly editing it. Served in the Illinois legislature. Just voted "Present" and collected his salary. And now WE have to suffer the consequences of his complete LACK of any sort of executive ability.
I'm no fan of LBJ but I guarantee you he would have been burning up the phone lines to make sure emergency equipment such as these oil booms made it QUICKLY down to the Gulf of Mexico.
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