oil spill cleanup efforts are a disorganized mess

[RedCOMET]

Umm, this isn't news. We have been screaming about that for over a month now. BPs response has been a clusterfuck of hurry up and wait, thousands of workers doing fuckall, hundreds of boats waiting to go to work for weeks finally get 3 days of work.... when Obama is in town (and then they are told to just go look for oil... Yeah, we kinda already know where the fuck it is), the best tools/methods/equipment to cleanup the spill still to this day not being employed (the local governments have guys on jackup barges using fucking wet vacs to suck the oil out of the water for fucks sake), absolutely no one in charge regardless of who says what to the media, CG permitting travel in an area and then BP saying otherwise and BP WINS?!?!?

Hurry up and wait seems to be a universal oil field motto. At least in my experience.

 

[RedCOMET]

I am on the boats and actually helping clean this mess up 3 days a week on my own dime. I am at the docks another 2 days, I live where the oil first washed ashore, I have a camp in Grand Isle, I see the cleanup effort daily and speak with the parish President of Plaquemines damn near every time I go to Buras/Venice to get on a boat and the President of Lafitte once a week or so. So yes, I do know what I am talking about because I am smack dab in the middle of the clusterfuck and have been since it started. I also lived through Katrina, Rita and Gustav. I was back in Jefferson Parish and parts of Orleans 2 1/2 days after the storm. I saw first hand how leadership can change a situation almost instantly. Do a little reading about General Honore and you might have just a tiny bit of perspective.

I have done more to actually help than you and probably everybody you know combined. I invite you to drag ass down here and I will get you on a boat if you care to help. I'd be happy to show you the clusterfuck in real life and let ya get your hands dirty a bit. I actually put my money, my time and a whole lot of sweat where my mouth is.

This is ALL about leadership. Period. Still to this very day no one has any idea who is really in charge and no one has the ability and the balls to cut through the red tape bureaucratic bullshit to get things done. You can say whatever ignorant crap you wish but it does not change the above facts.

I've flown out of Venice, and Fourchon to go work on the rigs and that is ( or now was) beautiful coast. Even in a helicoptor, to some northern yankee, it still loooked pretty.

My hat off to you sir!

 

[UberNeuman]

Hello McFly... there is enabling legislation already on the books...

Please read the United States Code Title 33 Chapter 26 Subchapter III, Sec. 1321 c(2).

The President has the power already to " direct all Federal, State, and private actions to remove the discharge or to mitigate or prevent the threat of the discharge" if that discharge were to affect public health or welfare of the United States.

There just isn't much directing going on. There is no need to tread softly. Instead of playing golf, obama needs to get some shit going.

Like what?

 

[rudder]

Like what?

oh nothing really....

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_h...hore-also-claims-not-being-processed-quickly/

 

[Darwin333]

Like what?

Accept offers of assistance, especially the offers of equipment/products specifically designed for cleaning oil spills.


Bitchslap the EPA and order them to fast track the approval process for products that could assist in the cleanup. Currently there is some sort of microbe a company makes that "eats" oil, it has been used successfully by the Coast Guard the United States Navy and the United States Army and for 5 weeks they couldn't get the EPA to return their call (they still might not have returned the call, I stopped following it 2 weeks ago).

Bitchslap the COE twice, on public TV preferably. They have been doing nothing but holding up progress, issuing permits weeks after its to late. The COE has been consistent with one thing and one thing only, preventing projects from moving forward in a timely manner.

Pick up the phone and have a dozen tankers with equipment to suck the oil off the surface of the water. Its a proven solution to get the oil OUT of the water (what a novel idea eh) without the use of toxic chemicals or hoping that water doesn't wash the oil over booms. Its truly sad fact that Saudi Arabia has a better method and response to oil spills than we do. The state currently has men on jackup barges with friggen wet vacs doing this.

Send Admiral Thad back to wherever he came from. He might be a great Admiral but he has been completely ineffective. He needs to appoint a tough as nails, no nonsense, no bullshit taking, LEADER that has a big ole set of brass balls and is willing and able to make decisions on the spot. He should also have direct access to the head of every agency involved and a blank check (wonder if the Feds have an air miles credit card with no limit?) to procure any equipment or hire anyone he deems necessary.

Front the states money to implement their own cleanup plans and then send BP the bill. Its truly a joke how things have been run. The Feds say they are in charge but Thad will not make a decision and instead defers to BP who has proven to everyone with two brain cells that they are not capable or willing to run the cleanup and containment.

Command and Control: There are thousands upon thousands of workers, boats, aircraft, barges, etc... and it is a complete disorganized clusterfuck. The military is extremely good at tracking and coordinating resources, BP obviously isn't.

Any rule or legislation that might prevent or delay the cleanup effort should be suspended with a strict stipulation that anyone abusing the suspension will be fined out of existence.

Immediately implement the "gang of 66" plan for existing deepwater rigs so we don't kill the entire industry for potentially a decade. This will prevent the loss of billions in royalties to the Federal Government, the loss of 40ish thousand jobs (mostly very well paying), and will likely be more effective than whatever they come up with anyway.

Hire a few retired oilfield engineers to advise him and his point man on the ground.

All inland waterways that can feasibly be separated from the gulf with a solid barrier (sand bars, not boom) should be done immediately. Fuck the Coast Guard putting navigation (the boats can go through the gulf just fine) ahead of saving huge estuaries and inland wetlands, swamps and marshes.

Send that boom that nobody knew existed while everyone said you couldn't buy anymore down here.

Order the Keelhauling of whoever is in charge of the people who are supposed to be cleaning the beaches. I think the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Enterprise are both in port, either would be an acceptable venue for the keelhauling.

On the same topic as above, send someone down here with some common damn sense to modify the safety rules for the workers. It is well beyond absurd that a man is only able to actually work an hour during an 8 hour shift. We need to keep the workers safe but the current rules are absurd and need revision. Furthermore, if the shit they are dumping into the gulf is so toxic that it requires full hazmat gear and workers only able to work 10 minutes an hour should we really be dumping more than has ever been dumped before (by many orders of magnitude) in the gulf?

"Strongly suggest" (pretty much an order when it comes from the President) that all oil companies in the Gulf commit any assets, workers and expertise that they have available to assist in the cleanup and issue an executive order holding them harmless from any civil litigation related to the cleanup (not sure if the last part is possible but its worth a shot).

Bitchslap the head of the COE again followed by a swift kick in the nuts.

Plenty more but I am out of time for the moment, that should be enough to start with though. If the above would have been done a month ago we would have a much different situation down here and Obama would look like a hero. BTW, those saying that this event completely discredits the "small government folk" need to consider that the sheer size of the bureaucratic bullshit and red tape is probably the 2nd biggest problem (behind the lack of a true leader on the ground with a set of nuts). I am not really in either camp just pointing out a fact. I could definitely be wrong but I somehow doubt that throwing another Federal agency or two into the mix would speed things up.

At this point we would be happier to see FEMA rolling into town. If the doesn't give you an idea of how badly things are being handled I don't know what will.

 

[Fern]

-snip-
And this has to be a death blow to anyone with the quaint notion that private industry is better than government in building cost effective bureaucracies.

Bwuhahaha, yeah because we can all see how effective all our various federal/governmental bureaucracies are.

Fern

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Accept offers of assistance, especially the offers of equipment/products specifically designed for cleaning oil spills.


Bitchslap the EPA and order them to fast track the approval process for products that could assist in the cleanup. Currently there is some sort of microbe a company makes that "eats" oil, it has been used successfully by the Coast Guard the United States Navy and the United States Army and for 5 weeks they couldn't get the EPA to return their call (they still might not have returned the call, I stopped following it 2 weeks ago).

Bitchslap the COE twice, on public TV preferably. They have been doing nothing but holding up progress, issuing permits weeks after its to late. The COE has been consistent with one thing and one thing only, preventing projects from moving forward in a timely manner.

Pick up the phone and have a dozen tankers with equipment to suck the oil off the surface of the water. Its a proven solution to get the oil OUT of the water (what a novel idea eh) without the use of toxic chemicals or hoping that water doesn't wash the oil over booms. Its truly sad fact that Saudi Arabia has a better method and response to oil spills than we do. The state currently has men on jackup barges with friggen wet vacs doing this.

Send Admiral Thad back to wherever he came from. He might be a great Admiral but he has been completely ineffective. He needs to appoint a tough as nails, no nonsense, no bullshit taking, LEADER that has a big ole set of brass balls and is willing and able to make decisions on the spot. He should also have direct access to the head of every agency involved and a blank check (wonder if the Feds have an air miles credit card with no limit?) to procure any equipment or hire anyone he deems necessary.

Front the states money to implement their own cleanup plans and then send BP the bill. Its truly a joke how things have been run. The Feds say they are in charge but Thad will not make a decision and instead defers to BP who has proven to everyone with two brain cells that they are not capable or willing to run the cleanup and containment.

Command and Control: There are thousands upon thousands of workers, boats, aircraft, barges, etc... and it is a complete disorganized clusterfuck. The military is extremely good at tracking and coordinating resources, BP obviously isn't.

Any rule or legislation that might prevent or delay the cleanup effort should be suspended with a strict stipulation that anyone abusing the suspension will be fined out of existence.

Immediately implement the "gang of 66" plan for existing deepwater rigs so we don't kill the entire industry for potentially a decade. This will prevent the loss of billions in royalties to the Federal Government, the loss of 40ish thousand jobs (mostly very well paying), and will likely be more effective than whatever they come up with anyway.

Hire a few retired oilfield engineers to advise him and his point man on the ground.

All inland waterways that can feasibly be separated from the gulf with a solid barrier (sand bars, not boom) should be done immediately. Fuck the Coast Guard putting navigation (the boats can go through the gulf just fine) ahead of saving huge estuaries and inland wetlands, swamps and marshes.

Send that boom that nobody knew existed while everyone said you couldn't buy anymore down here.

Order the Keelhauling of whoever is in charge of the people who are supposed to be cleaning the beaches. I think the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Enterprise are both in port, either would be an acceptable venue for the keelhauling.

On the same topic as above, send someone down here with some common damn sense to modify the safety rules for the workers. It is well beyond absurd that a man is only able to actually work an hour during an 8 hour shift. We need to keep the workers safe but the current rules are absurd and need revision. Furthermore, if the shit they are dumping into the gulf is so toxic that it requires full hazmat gear and workers only able to work 10 minutes an hour should we really be dumping more than has ever been dumped before (by many orders of magnitude) in the gulf?

"Strongly suggest" (pretty much an order when it comes from the President) that all oil companies in the Gulf commit any assets, workers and expertise that they have available to assist in the cleanup and issue an executive order holding them harmless from any civil litigation related to the cleanup (not sure if the last part is possible but its worth a shot).

Bitchslap the head of the COE again followed by a swift kick in the nuts.

Plenty more but I am out of time for the moment, that should be enough to start with though. If the above would have been done a month ago we would have a much different situation down here and Obama would look like a hero. BTW, those saying that this event completely discredits the "small government folk" need to consider that the sheer size of the bureaucratic bullshit and red tape is probably the 2nd biggest problem (behind the lack of a true leader on the ground with a set of nuts). I am not really in either camp just pointing out a fact. I could definitely be wrong but I somehow doubt that throwing another Federal agency or two into the mix would speed things up.

At this point we would be happier to see FEMA rolling into town. If the doesn't give you an idea of how badly things are being handled I don't know what will.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who shares these ideas.

 

[Corn]

Shut the fuck up because you have no idea what you are talking about. Bush fucking things up is no excuse for us not having a clear chain of command. I can write one up my damned self in 30 minutes, if the president doesn't have someone competent enough to do that within 2 damned months that is his fault not Bush's.

ALL of the problems we have can be easily fixed. We have even told them how the fuck to do it, a few phone calls and maybe a signature or two and Obama could improve the mitigation and cleanup efforts immensely. Instead they are IMPEDING THE CLEANUP EFFORT! Do you even understand that? The Feds are fucking shit up WORSE by getting in the god damned way. The COE takes weeks to issue permits when days matter, the CG won't allow states to close their own waterways because "they are navigable" (who gives a shit that closing it would save TONS of inland estuaries, we can't have boats taking detours now can we), products used by little government agencies like the US Navy, US Army and the US Coast Guard (used very successfully) can't even get a return phone call from the EPA to set testing/approval, untold amounts of toxic shit are being dumped into our waters and when the Government tells BP to stop BP tells them to get bent (who is in charge again?), instead of big ass tankers sucking the oil off of the surface (a proven and extremely effective method of actually getting oil OUT of the water, novel idea huh) the state has guys on jackup barges with motherfucking wet vacs!!!

And you have the nerve to sit here and tell me that Obama can't fix any of that? If he doesn't have the ability to be an affective leader and LEAD then tell him to put me in charge. I'll fix half the shit for him and even let him take the credit. I guaranfuckingtee you that General Honore would have this bureaucratic red tape bullshit solved and be working on the next set of problems before dinner his first day done here but poor Obama can't do (or send someone willing and able to do) a thing about any of that because of Bush. Give me a fucking break.

As far as "small government", every "small government" person I know thinks protecting our national security is one of the things the government should do well.

So fuck you and everyone that looks like you. You don't know the first damn thing about what you are talking about and all you are doing is being a part of the problem. Stop being a part of the problem and start being a part of the solution or just stfu.

LOL, well said. Hyper partisan apologist fuckstains like Jhhnn deserve every word of that rant. Obama deserves 100% of the blame for this clusterfuck operation the second it was discovered that BP didn't know what the hell they were doing--which was about, what, 1 week into the spill?

But BOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!