While the clock ticked
The China Daily had this story the other day on the A-Whale:
With no assurances it will be allowed to join the Gulf oil cleanup, a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world’s largest skimming vessel began a three day voyage to the scene of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The ship — the length of 3 1/2 American football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day…
The company is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup and does not have a contract with BP to perform cleanup work. The company also needs environmental approval and waiver of a nearly century-old law aimed at protecting U.S. shipping interests.
Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil. The Coast Guard, which has received more than 2,000 cleanup proposals, said the supertanker skimmer had survived a preliminary review and was being studied further. Capt. Ron LaBrec said that initial review involves a number of government agencies, including the EPA…
If the ship passes the additional review, its owners could then negotiate terms with BP. He could not provide an estimated timetable for the review would be completed. The company said it also needs a waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, which limits the activities of foreign-flagged ships in coastal U.S. waters.
You’d think the phase “let’s cut through the red tape” would have occurred to someone in the administration by week eleven of this farce. But the administration has so few experienced private sector executives, maybe it hasn’t occurred to them yet.