After making a brief stop in Norfolk for refueling, U.S. Coast Guard inspections and an all-out publicity blitz intended to drum up public support, a giant tanker billed as the world’s largest oil skimming vessel set sail Friday for the Gulf of Mexico where it hopes to assist in the oil-cleanup effort.The Taiwanese-owned, Liberian-flagged ship dubbed the “A Whale” stands 10 stories high, stretches 1,115 feet in length and has a nearly 200-foot beam. It displaces more water than an aircraft carrier. …
But a number of hurdles stand in his way. TMT officials said the company does not yet have government approval to assist in the cleanup or a contract with BP to perform the work.
That’s part of the reason the ship was tied to pier at the Virginia Port Authority’s Norfolk International Terminals Friday morning. TMT and its public-relations agency invited scores of media, elected officials and maritime industry executives to an hour-long presentation about how the ship could provide an immediate boost to clean-up efforts in the Gulf.
TMT also paid to fly in Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University, to get a look at the massive skimmer.
Overton blasted BP and the federal government for a lack of effort and coordination in their dual oil-spill response and made a plea to the government to allow the A Whale to join the cleanup operation.
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H/T HotAir
Why is this massive ship just sitting there when this spill is still getting worse? Why is this oil not getting cleaned up? What are they waiting for? It's disgusting to see these kinds of resources not getting used.
ReplyDeleteThis is a massive disaster, and it's only going to get worse. Every resource we collectively have as humans should be out there cleaning this up (for the whole world we're killing). Every thing we have should be out there cleaning up this mess...and why are the people who are trying to help not allowed to help?
Why are they being blocked? This is ridiculous. Look at that ship...it's huge! It's not going to hurt to get it out there (unless the dispersants would eat through the ship...it's eating through boats out there). It should be out there! This needs to get dealt with! I'm sure they're all professionals...they got the ship there, didn't they?
I used to think BP didn't know what they were doing and were totally incompetent, but I'm beginning to think that they have a pretty good idea of where this is all going and they're right on target. I hate to think it, but is this being allowed to happen for some corporate/political reason? Is this staged? It's almost beginning to look staged. The response is beyond pathetic...and if we really wanted to clean this up...we'd be getting it done.
This oil-cano (and soon to be oil-i-cane) will already be with us for a long time to come...quite possibly the rest of all of our lives, now that we've let it get this far. We still have to get cracking on the response while we still can, and try to save what we can, while we still can. When the storms this season start picking up all this oil up and moving it inland...it's going to be bad for everyone. It may already be too late, but that ship should be out there cleaning up as much as it can. Don't stop the people trying to help!