U.S. Senators call for Barack Obama to bring in Navy to battle oil spill

U.S. Senators call for Barack Obama to bring in Navy to battle oil spill
Published: Monday, June 21, 2010, 7:00 AM

Two senators wrote a letter to President Barack Obama on Sunday arguing it's time to bring in the Navy to attack the two-month-old Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Coming from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the letter argues the Navy could focus and speed up the crisis response, which is currently managed by a unified command that includes several agencies and companies.

"For the long term," wrote Nelson, "you really need a military command and control structure where orders are given and things get immediately implemented."
With no major developments Sunday in the struggle to stop BP's Macondo well from disgorging an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil a day, the senators and other officials took to television talk shows and released documents pushing their assessments of the problem and their ideas for alleviating the strain it is putting on the Gulf Coast.

Adding to the unrelenting drumbeat of criticism for BP, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., released a document from the company that described a worst-case scenario of 100,000 barrels gushing daily if all of the gear atop the wellhead were removed, no longer restricting the flow.

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And they argued the Navy could better organize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into a more effective defense of the coast from encroaching oil. Boxer and Nelson discussed their entreaty to Obama on CBS's "Face the Nation" during yet another round of Sunday television talk shows focusing on the spill.

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http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/us_senators_call_for_obama_to.html

I wonder what the down side would be? BP would have to pay the Navy for awhile?

beaten up by years of deregulation and massive corporate media propaganda efforts telling everyone to hate the government

and let the Navy pretend to keep them from 'spying'? Other than phony national security issues, I still can't see why the skimmers that European nations have offered us can't be used.

Maybe if the Navy has a bunch of ships with sailors looking through binoculars at them, the tea baggers won't have too big a problem with the 'furriners' off our shores.

doing some skimming, but to call even a single vessel 'redundant' seems incorrect to me.

some folks obviously don't get the scale of this ONGOING catastrophe.

This act of over 100 years ago provides only domestic shipping to domestic ports.

It can be waived on occasion, and is waived now.

I'd gladly welcome anyone and everyone who wanted to come here to clean up the Gulf of Mexico, even Cuba, if it's just to prevent that oil from screwing over their resources and coastline.

I'm just thinking that the reich wingers are the ones that the President might be afraid of, and having the Navy play hall monitor for foreign flagged skimmers might just provide a counter to the bleatings of the baggers.

but would they be out of their depth ?

... clearly they have no capability to stop the gusher or clean up the spill. Even the grandstanders now understand that.

The assumption is the Navy could do a better job of organizing efforts than the hodge podge of corrupt corporatists and politicans now in charge of most aspects of the disaster. And no doubt they can.

But consider, the Navy, like all US Military Services, operates on chain of command principle that doesn't translate well to civilians. Further, the Navy is steeped in secrecy, while most are begging for more, and more accurate, information.

Before we end up under martial law, let's think carefully about what we're going to do.

take charge of the vessels on the ocean, help transport equipment and material, etc.

how's that for starters?

Political grandstanding.

The SeaBees can place the booms and run the skimmers. (Similar to a sub set of their normal duties, training, expertise).

:argh:

Call in the army, the rest of the oil industry, and other nations as well, this thing is OBVIOUSLY bigger than a single organization can handle, and probably more than a single nation can handle, too.

Is it time to put the Navy in charge of the oil disaster clean up?
No ( 25% )
Yes ( 75% )

http://www.wwl.com/pages/7493568.php

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Despite promises of things changing, things are still all screwed up. We are trying to do all we can do, but without the command and control to do so. Relying on BP or whomever is in charge federally at current is a disaster upon the disaster.
We lack the manpower and materials to do 'whatever it takes' by ourselves. If the government refuses to help, the least they could do would be to get out of the way. People are wanting to try microbes to eat oil, among other things, and are told if you put ANYTHING unapproved, you will be subject to arrest by the coast guard. People trying to help are being chased away. They want us to just sit here and let the oil POUR in.
I know you wished it otherwise, but the response/containment/mitigation is ongoing and overwhelming. People are fatigued, taxed, and prevented from doing what we feel needs to be done, and no help from anyone to do anything more than the pathetic response you have been seeing on TV. This is a tragedy.

... it just isn't that important.

To most everybody who lives nearby and even many who don't, it is important enough to send in the Navy.

But for the most part, the government just doesn't feel it is of that much importance.