The tale of the tanker A Whale is an interesting one. The giant ship has been modified to work as a super-sized oil skimmer and has arrived in the Gulf, ready to go to work. The people of the Gulf, in fact all of us in the U.S., at BP, and around the Caribbean rim, ought to be grateful for the idea and action of the ship's Taiwanese owner.
This is good news, overall. Let's hope it works. But even if it doesn't work quite as advertised, it seems almost certain to contribute significantly to mitigating the effects of the disaster.
So I have to agree with the quoted "local officials," including Louisiana Governor Jindal, who question why the ship wasn't put into immediate operation. Technically, it was because the EPA "hadn't signed off" on the quality of the water A Whale would pump back into the Gulf.
But isn't this enough of an emergency that the EPA could suspend rules that weren't designed for this kind of problem anyway? Couldn't the White House and Congress by now have ginned up emergency legislation that would make this step and others possible? Possibly man-in-charge Thad Allen could be given authority to order such things at his discretion.
After all, it's hard to see how simply taking in polluted seawater and discharging it again could possibly make it worse than it already is. Even if it didn't remove a drop of oil!
(Note: This item has been cross-posted on "Morning Fog" - www.morning-fog.com)
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