Sunday, June 13, 2010

Fire Admiral Thad Allen

The Three Musketeers of the oil spill management team, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Admiral Thad Allen, and NOAA Director Jane Lubchenko are woefully inept and have to step aside. Further proof has surfaced.

HERE is a jaw dropping article about the mishandling of information useful for the Gulf oil spill.

Auburn, Maine, company Packgen has miles of oil spill containment boom on hand and has the capacity to produce upwards of 100,000 additional feet of boom a day. That inventory and that capacity has been available to help the Gulf Coast states for nearly a month. The news of this company was reported here at PJM four days ago, on June 8.

Why has this information been ignored by the leader of the pack on the ground, Admiral Allen? He was interviewed yesterday by ABC's Jake Tapper and claimed ignorance of the company and the inventory of containment boom. The problem? He was sent a letter signed by the two Maine senators and copied to Salazar and Lubchenko back in May. Yes, back in May. May 21, according to the article.

The Maine company has verified that their product meets all standards and passes all tests necessary to be of use in the Gulf oil spill. The company has some boom on pallets waiting for an order to ship it. BP is dragging their feet in purchasing the product. Where is the leadership?

If this administration now wants the American people to believe that they have been in charge "from day one", then they must accept the blame for all the screw-ups, too. Why do they continue to allow the Three Musketeers to remain in place if they are incapable of making progress and meeting the requests of the governors of the Gulf states? The governors of the Gulf states were informed of the product availability, too. Governor Jindal has been begging for boom from the beginning, right after the horrible explosion and the realization of the impending disaster on the water.

Admiral Allen plants stories like the fact that he wrote a letter to BP demanding that they produce their plans to speed up the process of plugging the hole gushing oil on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. What sense does that exercise make? Does he think BP is deliberately dragging the process out? What benefit would that serve to BP, for the gushing to continue longer than it already has?

The president has yet to meet with anyone from BP. Allen spins his wheels. Luchenko goes before the cameras and boasts that the Obama administration is committed to using "real" science in their decisions. Salazar continues on with his Fascist imagery in speech.

What is going on?

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