Ed Markey Questions BP on Oil Spill Clean Up and Hurricane Alex

Ed Markey, who never sees a problem the government shouldn't put its nose in, should be asking about the competence of the Obama and the federal government, not of BP. Let's look at the facts:

1) BP submitted its plan to the Minerals Management Service, a federal agency, that reviewed and accepted the plan. Where is Markey's condemnation of that agency? 2) The MMS director was fired and the agency was renamed to the nonsensical "Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement" (I'm not making this up) to bury its incompetence. 3) It took the Obama Administration 71 days of dealing with the oil slicks, cleanup using old, inadequate equipment to suspend "the Jones Act," a 70-year-old pro-union Act of Congress that prevented non-American built ships and crews from entering US waters. Because of that, until this week, the offers from 23 different countries, including Japan and others with high-speed, state-of-the-art oil skimmers, could not be used. Why did it take this government that long to suspend this stupid act (it only took Bush three days to suspend it after Katrina)? 4) Even now, complains Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, various competing federal agencies, eager to show off their clout, are issuing conflicting orders on the cleanup, countermanding orders given by other agencies. It's a mess--who really is in charge of the cleanup? Apparently no one. 5) And we have 2,600 overpaid federal government workers working for FEMA--where the heck are they in this crisis? Haven't heard a word about them, have you?

These are the questions an intelligent US Congressman should be asking of this government. The blame game on BP is getting old. At least they are putting up the money and doing what they can--this administration is doing far too little.

SherlockHolmes of NH 10:09AM July 01, 2010