What's this? Our government is finally going to do something? Hallelujah!
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-s...ule_change_might_free.html?wwparam=1277920988
Federal rule change could free more skimmers for Gulf oil fight
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
In an attempt to streamline federal laws that require skimmers and other oil spill response equipment to be on hand in other parts of the country -- preventing their use in the Gulf of Mexico -- the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency issued a temporary rule Tuesday that would free up resources and allow them to combat the Gulf oil disaster.
It's unclear exactly how many more skimming vessels could be directed to the Gulf as a result of the rule change. Officials with the Coast Guard did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
But based on numbers from early last week in the Coast Guard's National Response Resource Inventory,
there are more than 1,600 skimmers available in the continental United States -- though only an estimated 433 skimming vessels are currently working in the Gulf.
According to the emergency rule published in the federal register Tuesday morning, the Coast Guard and EPA are loosening the required response times for companies that are under contract to respond to oil disasters in other parts of the country.
"Additional assets are urgently needed in the Gulf region for the response to the unprecedented and ongoing Deepwater Horizon (spill)," the rule states. "Current assets in the Gulf region have been fully utilized in response to the (spill).
The rule releases regulated facilities and vessels from Coast Guard and EPA requirements that "would otherwise preclude them from relocating owned response resources or releasing contracted response resources to be moved to the Gulf region."
Local officials across the Gulf Coast have decried a severe shortage of skimmers, which have proved to be the primary tool for collecting oil offshore before it hits land.
The emergency rule will last through the end of this year. It comes after the Coast Guard made a determination nearly two weeks ago that there were an insufficient number of skimmers currently available on the Gulf coast.
The shortage of skimmers more than two months after the oil spill began has been more frustrating after revelations that numerous foreign companies have come forward with specialized skimming systems, yet have been turned down or lost in the shuffle by BP and the federal government.
Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., a vocal critic of the number of skimmers currently deployed, said the rule should help but comes late in the game.
"After waves of oil, tar and sludge-stained beaches, after families have lost their jobs, their business, and their way of life, we are finally beginning to see a sense of urgency from the federal government," LeMieux said in a statement. "I am glad the rule has been issued, but I wish this determination had been made weeks ago, when the oil could have been skimmed before it hit our coastlines."
The emergency rule still requires companies to maintain oil response supplies to respond to a minimum threshold for spills, but releases contractors from stricter requirements necessary to respond to a "maximum most probable discharge" in a particular area.
The rule notes that "this may marginally increase the risk of delayed response times in (other) areas because there would be fewer assets immediately available for spill response. However, we expect these risks to be temporary and small."
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