Dutch ships came over and were rigged with Dutch open ocean skimmers ASAP at a shipyard in Galveston capable and ready, then put to work at sea.

All available watercraft for the job at hand were even pulled out of mothballs and recertified at great expense. Barges, tugs & supply boats of the right specs.

BP deserves a great deal of respect and credit for the way it responded.

And of course most of the spill was OUTSIDE of U.S. Territorial waters and under International Law and treaties.

What biologist have done is the actually put their traps right in any emulsified oil they can find (not clean it up) to trap sea life. They WANT to find contamination. He has seen the traps himself and as a scientist is disgusted.

They are hurting local fisherman with this pure crap.

Just like ALL “conservative” blogs did while the well was leaking with shiite piles of false info. I read not a single article that was accurate.

As Dr Overton points out, the use of dispersants is a trade off. At Macondo, the situation was perfect for the maximum benefit at minimal environmental impact. Corexit is what caused the crude to form dispersed droplets: maximum surface area to let the digesting bacteria get to work ASAP.

Yes, the ingredients of Corexit (see the link) have long chemical names, but they are found in household products. The formulation was designed to minimize environmental damage.

For the left media, it’s an environmental crisis, there are lots of nice victims the media can talk to, and they still don’t want to touch it because they need to get Obama reelected. Which leaves foreign sources and nonpartisan sources, like the ones coltor341 cites upthread.

Scientists here and in Europe urged BP not to use Corexit. The Obama administration, leaning on BP, forced it to do so, so that cameras would not show oil slicks.

The real crime of the Gulf oil spill lies not with BP, which was merely grossly negligent, but with Obama, who tried to show the American people he could make a big problem just go away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_VVyPiV5xdY#!

As a native son of New Orleans I feel very protective of both the marshlands and our petroleum industry. You’re absolutely right to weigh our energy needs as a higher priority than the environmental risks of offshore drilling, especially when there are proven safeguards and the cost of gas is strangling the economy. But folks down here are justifiably angry at BP for what amounted to criminal negligence, and scary mutations do not count as a “natural way of dealing with” contamination.