A whale of a mistake

Right now, there is a ship at anchor in the gulf that is the world's largest oil skimmer. It has be waiting for weeks to be approved for use in removal of the oil that just keeps pouring into the water there. First there were delays because the ship is from Taiwan. Then there were delays while the EPA decided if the ship removed sufficient oil to allow its use. The ship is called A Whale. It is a converted oil tanker that sucks water and oil into the ship, separates out the oil and pumps the water back into the sea. The EPA wants to run tests to see how much of the oil gets removed and how much gets pumped back into the sea. Expectations are that the ship will remove at least 98% of the oil, but that may not be sufficient for the EPA.

The key here, however, is that the ship has the capacity to process enormous quantities of water/oil mixture each day. Indeed, the ship by itself will come close to doubling the oil removal capacity at work in the gulf. Still, the EPA will not allow the ship to deploy until it is tested and it will not allow the test until conditions are optimal for deployment. That means that the EPA is holding the ship out of action until there are calm seas and good weather. Since there are a series of tropical depressions in the gulf at the moment, there may be no test for another week.

Who are these idiots at the EPA? Isn't there someone at Obama central who understands that a ship which takes out only 50% of the oil is still removing an enormous amount of the petroleum polluting the gulf? Waiting for good weather and for test result is crazy. Some adult needs to step forward and tell the kiddies to stop playing with their toys. There is a gulf to clean up, and the work has to go forward on all possible fronts.

Obama is making a whale of a mistake if he thinks that the American people do not see his incompetence or that they will forgive it.