Shocked...
Amateur Hour -vs- Government Mandated Difficulties, with prior intent
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has issued a report of the effectiveness and efficiency of the Fedz in the Gulf Oil Spill.
“How the White House Public Relations Campaign on the Oil Spill is Harming the Actual Clean-up"
-- The failure of Administration officials to quickly waive laws preventing necessary foreign assets from reaching the Gulf and other regulations are hampering efforts to clean-up and limit damage from the oil spill. Local officials feel the federal government is making the perfect the enemy of the good in cleanup efforts; ...
-- Local officials strongly believe the President’s call for a drilling moratorium will significantly compound the economic damage caused by the oil spill and will actually increase risk associated with future offshore drilling projects; ...
The White House blog details a number of assets deployed in the region to combat the spill. This includes vessels, boom, and dispersant. The number of assets claimed, however, does not appear to match what is actually in the field. Parish officials maintain that the thousands of vessels cited in the blog are non-existent. One senior official [Deano Bonano, Homeland Security Director, Jefferson Parish LA] refers to them as “phantom assets.” When asked to elaborate, he explained that when he asks the federal government to provide the location of its assets, it either refuses or cannot do so. Daily helicopter search grids performed by the Parish sheriff’s department confirm to him that very few of the assets claimed are deployed. ...corroborated by Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser…
...The Obama Administration has repeatedly asserted that the federal government has been in control since day one and has used military language to describe its efforts.... “the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort.” ... referred to the response as a “battle” and his strategy as a “battle plan.” ...
...Rear Admiral Jim Watson, the senior-most official at the Unified Area Command in Robert, LA, ... stated that his command structure is decidedly different than what has been described by the White House. According to Watson, “It is not a war-fighting command and control structure where the Federal government is sending orders to BP. Rather the process on the ground with BP and others is “consensus-based,” where higher-raking officials inject themselves to resolve differences of opinion. In his view, “The framework probably isn’t up to the task.” ...
Reliable information about problems is a prerequisite for an effective response to any major crisis. The Gulf oil spill response effort, however, is being hindered by a self-inflicted disinformation campaign directed by the White House.
A clear pattern has emerged of efforts to control and manipulate information about the oil spill and response efforts ... when in reality a dysfunctional consensus-based system that relies too heavily on BP is in place.
Well, the EPA has apparently reacted - sort of. Since shutting down drilling means there will be less crude, the EPA has threatened to end a 1994 agreement with Texas about how to calculate refinery pollutants, which may result in shutting down most of them.
Posted by on 07/06/10 at 10:22 AM
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