It's clear that a new unit in the Coast Guard should be formed.

[WeDidIt]

It needs to have smaller units located at ports of call that service off shore oil drilling anywhere in the nation.

What the unit does is spend their days training for oil spill cleanup and shutting down oil rig blowouts in deep water. That's all they do.

Supplement the unit with resources from the Department of the Navy, including marines, sailors, ships, aircraft, etc.

Pay for it with a charge on the leases for off shore oil wells and the running of oil tankers in US waters.

I guarantee you, turn this over to a Coast Guard/Military joint task force and anything like this in the future will be handled in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

The problem has been that the law puts the onus of this on the oil companies and as every oil spill, leak or gusher in history has proved, the oil companies simply cannot handle and are not up to the task.

Nationalize the problem and the problem will never get this bad again.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. sounds good, but they have had them

for years, just not funded enough
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/nsfweb/NSF/nsfservices.asp

[WeDidIt]

2. They need to be one helluva lot bigger

and have one helluva lot more equipment.

They also need to train for rapid deployment. The biggest problem in the Gulf at the start of this thing was how slow the response was which is why it got so out of hand so quickly.

What you linked to appears to be nothing more than administrative. I'm talking boots on the deck that know how to do this and do it quickly.

[Lerkfish]

3. well, they're a little busy chasing off journalists right now

at the behest of the CiC.

[stray cat]

4. made up of engineers with expertise building equipment that can operate a mile down?

[BeFree]

5. Yeah

We got some of those in the navy.

What else you need to know?

[WeDidIt]

6. That would probably be the officer corps of the unit

It'll be expensive, but it's the price that has to be payed if we are to continue drilling off shore.

[JDPriestly]

7. And what would this task force do when there are no spills?

Can we afford to have a task force that almost never has anything to do?

[dgibby]

8. Coast Guard is the smallest of the Uniformed Services.

They are already stretched to the max.

Seems to me it would be better to stop deep water drilling, considering there is no technology available to stop these gushers once they occur.