Critics say the U.S. government has turned down offers of state-of-the-art Gulf cleanup help from the Netherlands and other countries because it would require a waiver of the Jones Act, a union-backed law from 1920 that restricts coastwise marine trade to U.S. ships and crews. [Houston Chronicle, Mark Perry, Mike Riggs/Daily Caller] More: Keith Hennessey, via PoL, on the Bush Administration experience with Jones Act waivers after Katrina and Rita. Yet more: according to the Obama administration, waivers wouldn’t make a difference. More: Bainbridge.
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If Obama was serious about the cleanup, the “thanks, but no thanks” response he gave to the Dutch would not have happened.
His dithering is monumental and his mismanagement is killing my state, and it is about to kill others.
The government is now accepting some such aid, and apparently it accepted at least a bit of help in May. The Post ,a href=””http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/13/AR2010061304232.html>reports that the administration’s posture on foreign help has been inconsistent at best.
The government is now accepting some such aid, and apparently it accepted at least a bit of help in May. The Post reports that the administration’s posture on foreign help has been inconsistent at best.
Voice of America has also reported that the Obama Administration blocked foreign vessels seeking to help fight the spill based on its refusal to use the waiver provisions in the Jones Act.
The Washington Examiner and Belgian, Canadian, and other newspapers have also reported that the Obama Administration has blocked various forms of foreign assistance against the spill based on the Jones Act.
I discuss this more thoroughly at my web site at The Examiner.
Here is my detailed discussion of how the Obama Administration greatly delayed clean-up of the BP oil spill by thwarting help from America’s allies.
This delay has been attributed by the Voice of America and the Washington Examiner to the Obama Administration’s failure to exercise its authority under the Jones Act to waive the Act’s restrictions on foreign vessels.
Brought to you by the same lovely people who will be running our health care system. More change, please.
Gee, that’s funny. NPR has been doing 24/7 coverage of the BP oil spill, yet I’ve not heard one word about this.
A relevant Bush/Katrina and Obama/Deepwater Horizon comparison…
For the record: in Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration was able to get Jones Act restrictions that interfered with help from international ships waived on Day 3; for Deepwater Horizon, where international help is much more critical due to shorta…
[…] Judge blocks sweeping Obama administration ban on new offshore drilling [Roger Pilon, Cato] Some reasons judge may have found ban irrational [Lowry, NRO, scroll to reader comment; Gus Lubin, Business Insider] More on Jones Act waivers in the Gulf [Bainbridge, earlier] […]