Posted on 06/14/2010 2:40:53 PM PDT by GSWarrior
Any vestiges of goodwill and support for President Obama that I hold are vanishing faster than the Gulf Coast wetlands. Our “green” president is directly responsible for the escalation of the worst man-made environmental disaster in American history.
The catastrophic explosion of Deepwater Horizon on April 20 was not directly caused by Obama, obviously. Does any rational person believe that Obama stands to gain by the situation in the gulf, either by causing it or by standing idly on the sidelines while oil continues to pour into the gulf? But standing idly by is precisely what this administration has done. According to ForeignPolicy.com, within two weeks of the rig explosion the governments of Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and even the United Nations offered assistance. The response of the Obama State Department:
"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."
Similarly, De Standaard, a Dutch news site, reports that Belgian and Dutch dredgers possess technology to combat the gigantic spill in the Gulf. Two Belgian companies, DEME and De Nul, and their Dutch competitors are set up to handle the task in part because construction of ships required to undertake a large-scale cleanup would cost twice as much to build in the U.S.
Why would the Obama administration refuse the help of foreign entitities? Because of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. Also known as the Jones Act, the federal legislation is a protectionist measure designed to support the U.S. merchant marine industry. It requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried by ships flying the U.S. flag, constructed in the United States, and owned and crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Written into the Jones Act are provisions that allow for waivers in cases of national emergency or strategic interest. Even President Bush, in his less-than-stellar response to Hurricane Katrina, did not hesitate to waive the Jones Act in order speed up the distribution of oil and gasoline to areas where pipeline transmission systems were damaged or destroyed. Although I expect President Obama to waive the Jones Act eventually, why did he not act to do so when offers of assistance were coming in? Some have suggested it was a sense of pride, but I believe it stems from Obama’s belief that his adminstration—the federal government—is and should be the solver of all problems.
There will no doubt be plenty of blame for this catastrophe, but if there is anything that Obama could have done to forestall or lessen the amount of damage to the Gulf Coast he should have done it. His continuing failure to do so is contributing to an environmental nightmare beyond belief. This is an epic failure by the Obama Administration.
This is the time to waive the Jones Act. This is the time to issue a plea to anyone in private industry—foreign or domestic—who has a potential, even unproven, method to clean up afflicted coastline or to protect threatened areas to get to the Gulf as soon as possible and put it to work in a coordinated effort. This is the time to throw out the rulebook, to think outside of the box. This is the time for Obama to remove the roadblocks that keep gulf coast localities from receiving the supplies they have requested. This is the time to let local and state governments to do whatever they need to do and to do it right now.
The ecosystem of the Gulf Coast is going to be altered. Wetlands will disappear, likely to be replaced with open water. Life up and down the food chain will suffer and die. In some instances, whole species face the possibility of extinction. How we respond will define us as a nation and, ultimately as a species.
Yeah, this is the “environmental” President. This guy worries about no one and nothing but his union cronies. The union doesn’t want foreign ships with non-union labor coming into our waters, so they don’t. No matter how much they could help.
Alternate title: Obama Be Jonesin’!
“Does any rational person believe that Obama stands to gain by the situation in the gulf, either by causing it or by standing idly on the sidelines while oil continues to pour into the gulf?”
We were having a heavy push in the FL congress to consider drilling just before this happened. In fact, the day before it happened, the FL speaker ran an editorial in our Tampa paper on how important it was to drill in the gulf.
I’m not a tinfoil hatter, but it seems to me taking care of the spill promptly was just not an Obama priority. It’s far too good an opportunity for him to let it cause a little bit of a problem, and use that as justification to not drill.
If that was his plan, it backfired in a big way. I don’t see anyway he can be re-elected after this.
Congress made that move last week i believe. Of course it should have occurred long ago.
He is steering the rigs to Brazil. Don’t forget, he gave them $20 Billion to work on their oil exploration.
bump
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