Steffy: U.S. and BP slow to accept Dutch expertise

Houston Chronicle ^ | June 8, 2010 | LOREN STEFFY

[Bigun]

Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help.

It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.

The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,'” said Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston.

[stevie_d_64]

You know, if these are the big ships I heard about in the North Sea that are available to us, only if we’d ask...

This is flat out criminal, by our government to interfere with the cleanup in this manner...

Something really stinks with this...And if the Federal government cannot contemplate the effectiveness of these ships, then certainly a chief executive from the states affected should request them and say to hell with the Fed...

Bobby??? Make the call my friend...

Governor “Good Hair” Rick...Back ye nieghbor up!!!

Hailey Barber??? Come on son!!! Lets lick this pig!!!

Crist??? Ohhh, wait...Never mind...

[stevie_d_64]

Oops, typos galor...

I meant “Kick this Pig”...Muh bad...Geesh, I need to go to sleep now...

Geesh, I feel so embarrased in front of my FReeper FRiends...

Bad keyboard!!! Baaaaad Keyboard!!!

[FBD]

I'll bet you all dollars to dough nuts that Obama didn't want to have anything to do with the Netherlands, because Geert Visser, consul general of the Netherlands has taken a stand against Islam. He is anti-Sharia! Bets?

The Muslims are trying to kill him, check it out:
http://vodpod.com/watch/2355877-british-muslims-threaten-geert-wilders-with-death

[Taxman]

I’m betting on justice in this life!

[shield]

And if the punk would have accepted when offered...he’d been a hero today....now he is nothing but a inexperienced dud.....from both sides

[Mind-numbed Robot]

They should have sent the offer to Bobby Jindal and the other coastal governors. They want to clean the mess up. Obama doesn’t and BP is afraid to say anything for fear of Obama.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Are you sure this isn't a symptom of America's sense of noblesse oblige, whereby they like to patronise those they consider less fortunate than themselves, and are correspondingly highly offended at the notion that anyone should help them.... I seem to remember a similar reluctance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, during the Bush Administration, when foreign help was often either refused or accepted only grudgingly.... For my part I had to make an extraordinary effort to make a donation to the relief efforts because most appeals did not accept money from non-US debit cards....

[WOBBLY BOB]