Olil and stupidity - again

Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Some look to the possibility of looming catastrophe and know how to head it off.
Others are unprepared for risk.
And when risk turns to reality, they are unable to get their priorities right.

The Dutch fall into the first group.
The US appear to be in the second group - again. (I hope NZ is in the first but I doubt it)

Three days after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the Netherlands offered the U.S. government ships equipped to handle a spill much larger than the BP spill that then appeared to be underway.

The Dutch system can handle 400 cubic metres per hour; more capacity than all the ships that the U.S. had deployed.

The Dutch also offered to protect Louisiana's marshlands with sand barriers (berms).

In the event of an oil spill, The Netherlands government, which owns its own ships and high-tech skimmers, gives an oil company 12 hours to demonstrate it has the spill in hand. If it can't then the government dispatches its own ships at the oil company's expense.

What was the US reaction to the Dutch offer of help.

"Thanks but no thanks," despite BP's wanting to bring in the Dutch equipment and despite the Dutch government offer was at no charge. The U.S. has also turned down offers of help from 12 other governments with superior expertise and equipment. Unlike the U.S., Europe has fleets of Oil Spill Response Vessels that sail circles around their make-shift U.S. counterparts.

Why does neither the U.S. government nor U.S. energy companies have on hand the cleanup technology available in Europe?

Because the superior European technology runs afoul of U.S. environmental rules.

The Dutch vessels suck up vast quantities of oily water, extract most of the oil and then spit overboard vast quantities of nearly oil-free water. Nearly oil-free (I understand .0015% could be left behind - infinitesimal in the size of the ocean) isn't good enough for the U.S. regulators, who have a standard of at least 99.9985% pure.
It seems they would rather have it polluted !!!

So the US have been removing water from the Gulf, taking it to land and storing it. Causing them to make up to 10 times as many trips to storage facilities - an approach deemed by most as "crazy."

The Americans, overwhelmed by the catastrophic consequences of the BP spill, finally relented and took the Dutch up on their offer -- but only partly. Because the U.S. didn't want Dutch ships working the Gulf, the U.S. airlifted the Dutch equipment to the Gulf and then retrofitted it to U.S. vessels.

And rather than have experienced Dutch crews immediately operate the oil-skimming equipment, to appease labour unions, the U.S. postponed the clean-up operation to allow U.S. crews to be trained.

As for the sand banks - the U.S. asked the Dutch to train American workers to build the sand barriers (berms). Dutch dredging ships could complete the berms in Louisiana twice as fast as the U.S. companies awarded the work - but!!

Then again, perhaps we should not be all that perplexed at the US turning an accident into a catastrophe. When the Exxon Valdez oil tanker accident occurred off the coast of Alaska in 1989, a Dutch team with clean-up equipment flew in to offer their help. To their amazement, they were rebuffed and told to go home with their equipment.

The same applied with Katrina, many governments offered help but it seems they would rather have people die than accept help.

They are real capitalists except when it comes to themselves. When we were in Washington D. C. we had to have two guides as the trip guide couldn't work in another State. Protectionism at its worst but they couldn't see it.

Quiz : First again but the bonus went to two other teams and now the larger bonus has gone it is a return to the status quo with about 30-40 people less. We called ourselves 'Pluto is not a planet' as he always asks questions as if it is.