17 Countries Offer Gulf Assistance, BP Accepts Only 2 Offers

[ensho]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-bp-countries-offer-assistance.html


As desperate efforts continue to stop the oil spewing from beneath the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico, 17 countries have offered to help in some way or another, but for now BP and officials coordinating the clean-up effort have accepted assistance from only two of those countries, Mexico and Norway.

-snip-

He said the U.S. has received offers to assist from 17 countries and four international organizations. The countries are : Canada, Mexico, Korea, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Vietnam. The organizations are : the European Union, including the European Maritime Safety Agency, the environmental unit of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Environment Program and the International Maritime Organization.

Though the State Department receives the offers, it is BP and the Unified Area Command, led by the Coast Guard, that are the entities that decide which offers to accept. So far, the UAC has accepted skimmers and booms offered by Mexico and Norway. He deferred questions as to why only those offers had been accepted so far to the UAC in Louisiana.

-snip-

He said the State Department’s role “is to accept offers by countries and international organizations and then pass those offers of assistance through channels to this United Area Command. The UAC is actually the entity that makes the decisions based on evaluating what's being offered and what the immediate needs are. As I understand it, some of the early acceptance involved booms to try to contain the spread of oil away from the rig. But beyond that, these decisions are being made down in Louisiana.”

He said the US is not shutting the door on receiving further international offers of assistance as “this remains a significant and formidable challenge for everybody.”

“We are grateful for the assistance that we have been offered internationally. It is something that we evaluate every day,” said Crowley. “But, again, I would defer to others, particularly the Coast Guard, to go through where they are in the process of evaluating particular offers."
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just so you know

[CountAllVotes]

1. why is this decision up to BP?

Isn't the U.S. government in charge?

:grr:

:kick:

[dipsydoodle]

3. Try reading it

It actually says "The UAC is actually the entity that makes the decisions" and as such the US Government is in charge. Your President had said your government was in charge. If you don't believe him then by all means take it with him accordingly.

[CountAllVotes]

9. BP is in charge

that is what it seems to me.

Obama = irrelevant to them! :argh:

[ShamelessHussy]

2. you know, after seeing these clowns screw up the gulf, with no end in sight, i say stop all offshore

drilling now, until they all have two relief wells drilled.

and when i say clowns i am referring to both BP and the Gov.

[amborin]

4. Brazil could help; they are slated for ultra-deep GOM soon, and have ultra-ultra deep S. Atlantic

Taipu project

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8413981&mesg_id=8413981

[sandnsea]

6. Do you see there name up there?

They didn't offer.

[amborin]

8. well then

maybe we should take a 2nd look at their upcoming ultra deep GOM project, temporarily on yellow light?

[sandnsea]

5. Originally they hadn't accepted any offers

Because they had what they needed. Now they need more booms, so they're accepting them. They had originally offered dispersants as well, but all hell would break loose for the poor country that gave dispersants to the US. In fact, if I were a foreign country, I'd retract that offer.

So accepting offers as needed was exactly what the State Dept had said would happen, and now it is. And if we are running out of booms already, then the Coast Guard will have to be accepting more from other countries as well.

And I wonder how they dispose of the booms.

[OregonBlue]

7. This is a misleading headline. The article says the UAC makes the decision but ABC has chosen to

insinuate that it's BP. In addition, please note that it's in the "Political Punch" section.

Seems ABC is making a political statement here!!

[HughMoran]

10. Yes, this is common knowledge for those paying attention

Obama discussed how duplicate or unneeded equipment would not be useful. But, gotta keep stirring...

[NotThisTime]

11. Let's go Norway... let's hope they have the expertise....

[Angry Dragon]

12. AAAAH ..... Hell

Let's all sit back this long weekend and watch and listen to how a foreign corporation destroys a large part of our country. No one knows what to do, no one wants to be or is in charge. When and if ever stops some money will change hands to pay fines and clean-up bills. No one will be jailed except someone on the bottom. Blame will lay with someone that was killed perhaps.

I am just sick and tired of people with money living under different laws than anyone else. Until that is changed this country soon will be a second class country.