Free Republic

First, the Environmental Protection Agency can relax restrictions on the amount of oil in discharged water, currently limited to 15 parts per million. In normal times, this rule sensibly controls the amount of pollution that can be added to relatively clean ocean water. But this is not a normal time. Various skimmers and tankers (some of them very large) are available that could eliminate most of the oil from seawater, discharging the mostly clean water while storing the oil onboard. While this would clean vast amounts of water efficiently, the EPA is unwilling to grant a temporary waiver of its...

At issue are resources for cleaning up oil spills known as skimmers. They have a variety of designs, applications and capacities. But skimmer technology is proven and in daily use around the world. Recognizing large spills need large capacity skimmers, the Market has developed just such products. These products are being offered to the US from all over the world. But the Obama administration refuses to accept them. There are are two basic reasons why, one environmental and one rooted in protectionist labor policy. President Obama cares more about the interests of Labor Unions and Environmentalists than he does everyday...

Five weeks have passed since the oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. After five weeks the citizens along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are still waiting for government to respond appropriately to an ecological disaster that effects hundreds and potentially thousands of miles of coastline. (Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal displays a stick that he dipped into oil on a land bridge built by the Louisiana National Guard to protect wetlands on Elmer's Island in Grand Isle, La., Thursday, May 20, 2010. Oil from last month's Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of...