Time for the Truth Squad.
Just a couple of weeks ago, The Baconator Himself wrote a scold of President Barack Obama for not using “A Whale,” a massive ship specially designed to skim up spilled oil from the ocean. The 1,100-foot long vessel, a converted bulk carrier, maybe could scoop up 21 million tons of oily water a day from the BP rig disaster.
Jimbo hit us with accusations of Obama incompetence, creeping Washington-itis, bureaucratic inanity and even (incorrectly as he admits) the Jones Act which is a 1920 law to keep foreign flagged vessels out of the coastal U.S. trade.
As Bacon wrote:
“While Obama played golf and the bureaucrats picked their bureaucratic nits, massive quantities of oil, which could have been skimmed or blocked by sand berms, began befouling the marshes and beaches of the Gulf Coast.”
Well, things haven’t quite turned out per the script of Bacon and his fellow conservative wonks.
A Whale has made it to the Gulf of Mexico. But it doesn’t seem to work. As the Times Picayune says, the vessel has trouble skimming oil when waves are six-feet or so. That’s not an uncommon occurrence in the Gulf, especially when hurricanes are brewing in the area.
Tests of the July 4 weekend were “inconclusive” according to the Coast Guard. The billionaire owner of the ship says they experimenting with using the massive bulk of the vessel to calm seas enough for skimming.
Oh well. I’m sure we can find some kind of profligate federal spending angle in this if we try hard enough.
Peter Galuszka