Steffy: U.S. and BP slow to accept Dutch expertise

Houston Chronicle and their reporters understand the oil industry and how it works along with the New Orleans Times-Picayune probably better than any other newspapers in America. The Houston Chronicle has never been known as a 'conservative' newspaper (far from it), but they are now asking questions of why this Administration and BP did not accept help from the Dutch when they officially contacted Obama.

"WHY?" is on the lips of many Americans partly because Obama reached out to a Hollywood producer instead of accepting the Dutch offer. Obama wanted Cameron, producer of Titanic to help, but BP said NO because he had no expertise to help with the oil spill. A Hollywood producer with no experience versus the Dutch with Shell Oil and a ton of experience plus equipment and Obama chose the Hollywood producer? To quote Indiana Jones "He chose poorly!" Choosing poorly seems to be a trademark of Obama as President.

This is what jumped out at us about the Dutch offer:

There, the government owns the cleanup equipment, including the skimmers now being deployed in the Gulf.

“If there's a spill in the Netherlands, we give the oil companies 12 hours to react,” he said.

If the response is inadequate or the companies are unprepared, the government takes over and sends the companies the bill.

The Dutch give 12 hours to react and Obama has given 52 days and counting. That shows that Obama is inept at handling a crisis along with the Democrat run Government.

Steffy: U.S. and BP slow to accept Dutch expertise
By LOREN STEFFY Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
June 8, 2010, 10:13PM

Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help.

It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.

The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,'” said Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston.

Now, almost seven weeks later, as the oil spewing from the battered well spreads across the Gulf and soils pristine beaches and coastline, BP and our government have reconsidered.

U.S. ships are being outfitted this week with four pairs of the skimming booms airlifted from the Netherlands and should be deployed within days. Each pair can process 5 million gallons of water a day, removing 20,000 tons of oil and sludge.

At that rate, how much more oil could have been removed from the Gulf during the past month?

The uncoordinated response to an offer of assistance has become characteristic of this disaster's response. Too often, BP and the government don't seem to know what the other is doing, and the response has seemed too slow and too confused.

Excerpt: Read More at Houston Chronicle