Jonesing
By ddepledge
FactCheck.org has weighed in on recent criticism of the Obama administration alleging that the Jones Act, a federal maritime law that protects the domestic shipping industry, has hindered the BP oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico.
The group, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, found that the Obama administration had not turned down foreign assistance and that 15 foreign-flagged vessels are helping out with the spill without waivers from the law.
U.S. Rep. Charles Djou, R-Hawaii, who has called on President Obama to waive the Jones Act, gets special mention:
Some critics have charged — falsely — that Obama’s refusal to waive the Jones Act has kept foreign vessels from assisting in cleanup efforts. In a June 23 interview on “Fox & Friends,” Republican Rep. Charles Djou of Hawaii was asked by show host Gretchen Carlson about the Jones Act and why the administration was refusing foreign assistance. Djou answered:
Djou, June 23: It’s important that we take help from whomever and wherever they’re willing to offer it. … So why are we not waiving the Jones Act to allow international help to come in? … Why we’re not waiving it here … is baffling.
Political Radar
June 29th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Like many/most politicians, Djou used this for his two seconds of attention in the Fox echo chamber and now he’ll move on to some other vapid platitude.
June 29th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
I believe that FactCheck and Annenberg are both left-leaning and therefore not reliable in judging whether Djou is correct that the Jones Act has interfered with foreign assistance with the Gulf oil spill.
I found the following information at
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2104053/posts
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Ph.D. is the Director of the ANNENBERG Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania which is the organization BEHIND the FactCheck.org “truthfulness” website.
Dr. Jamieson’s newest book entitled “Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment” is a MAJOR HIT PIECE against the Conservative voices in the media on television, radio, and in print.
In Dr. Jamieson’s biography on the APPC website, she states that during the 2004 general election she regularly appeared on “NOW With Bill Moyers” and “The NewsHour,” and throughout the 2008 campaign is appearing regularly on “Bill Moyers Journal.”
FactCheck.org is a LEFT-BIASED organization that has sold itself as “Politically NEUTRAL” to America’s voters and media personnel.
The fact is, the ANNENBERG Public Policy Center (APPC), the sponsoring agency behind FastCheck.org, is itself supported by the same foundation, the ANNENBERG FOUNDATION, that Bill Ayers secured the 49.2 million dollars from to create the Chicago ANNENBERG Challenge “philanthropic” organization in which Barack Obama was the founding Chairman of the Board for and Ayers served as the grant writer of and co-Chair of for its two operating arms.
June 30th, 2010 at 1:24 am
When President Clinton falsely said ” I did not have sex with that woman ” conservatives said he was lying. So when Charles Djou falsely said, not granting waivers has kept foreign vessels from assisting in cleanup efforts, by conservative standards Charles Djou was lying.
June 30th, 2010 at 2:34 am
Okay then how come a French company had to sell his boats to a Florida company to work on the spill.
From The Times Picayune by Chris Kirkham
Just weeks after the oil spill crisis began to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico, the French foreign minister volunteered a fleet of oil skimming boats from a French company, Ecoceane. A month later, in early June, Ecoceane Chief Executive Eric Vial met with BP and Coast Guard officials to present the idea.
But after that meeting, weeks went by with little contact as oil continued gushing into the Gulf. A frustrated Vial was able to get around the bureacracy last week only when his company sold nine of the oil collection boats to a private contractor in Florida, who could then put the boats to work.
June 30th, 2010 at 2:37 am
So how do you explain why boats best suited for working less than 3 miles from shore were not immediately allowed to work.
From The Times Picayune by Chris Kirkham
Laws affect use of foreign equipment
Regarding international skimming vessels, Allen said earlier this month that the government would work to quickly process waivers of the Jones Act, a 1920 maritime law that promotes U.S. shipping interests. But he has downplayed the importance of the law in prohibiting foreign boats seeking to aid in the Gulf spill response.
The law prevents foreign crews and foreign ships from transporting goods between U.S. ports; in the Deepwater Horizon case, the “port” would be where the oil is collected offshore. Allen has said that many of the foreign-flagged boats are working the spill more than three miles offshore, meaning they would not be carrying oil to a separate port on shore.
“While we have not seen any need to waive the Jones Act as part of this historic response, we continue to prepare for all possible scenarios,” Allen said. “Should any waivers be needed, we are prepared to process them as quickly as possible to allow vital spill response activities being undertaken by foreign-flagged vessels to continue without delay.”
But Vial of Ecoceane, the French oil spill response company, said the Jones Act and other difficulties getting through to BP prevented his company from putting boats to work sooner. He has boats that could work offshore, but also smaller models that would be best suited in shallower inland waters within the three-mile limit.
“We could have sent boats earlier, but we wanted to make sure that if we sent our boats, they could be used in the U.S., because of the Jones Act,” Vial said in an interview translated from French.
June 30th, 2010 at 2:42 am
And as a matter of fact more skimmers were needed, but due to Federal Law they are limited in how many they can deploy. So if the Jones act were not in play how come those boats were not deployed immediately. And more over, LESS than ONE THIRD of the boats deployed were designed specifically for oil skimming. So why refuse to use other high tech skimmers from foreign countries if everything was A-OK?
From The Times Picayune by Chris Kirkham
‘Anemic’ response criticized
But federal response officials have been pressed for more than a week to streamline U.S. maritime restrictions that would allow more foreign skimming vessels to be put to work on the spill. And the Coast Guard and BP have been taken to task for not bringing more available U.S. skimmers to the Gulf spill.
According to the latest numbers from BP, 433 vessels are collecting oil in the Gulf, but less than a third of those are specialized boats designed specifically for oil skimming.
On the Senate floor last week, Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., pointed to a Coast Guard map detailing more than 850 skimmers available in the southeastern United States — and more than 1,600 available in the continental United States.
“We are literally talking about more than a thousand skimmers that are available, but we only have 400 – if this number is correct — at work,” LeMieux said. “It is hard to believe that the response is this anemic; it is hard to believe that there is this lack of urgency or sense of purpose in getting this done.”
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires regions to have minimum levels of equipment such as boom and skimmers, making it difficult for every oil-fighting resource to be directed to the Gulf of Mexico.
Allen acknowledged the hurdle last week, saying that there are “discussions we’re having across the entire country where we have equipment that’s out there as a requirement — legal requirement to cover spill response of those areas — and how we might free those up. That’s a work in progress inside the administration right now.”
June 30th, 2010 at 6:54 am
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-accepts-international-apf-4104246595.html?x=0&.v=2
June 30th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Aloha ~
Is it surprising that Djou either lied or got his facts wrong? Is anyone shocked to learn that Faux News host, Gretchen Carlson, distorted truth to viewers?
It’s a wonder our nation can hold together in these rough and challenging seas when we can’t even have honest and adult conversations about policy.
Is this the type of representative you want to send back to Washington in November? More lies … more distortions … and, your family financial position, as well as that of the nation, is collapsing.
Auwe!!!
A*L*O*H*A
June 30th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Foreign companies possessing some of the world’s most advanced oil skimming ships say they are being kept out of efforts to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf because of a 1920’s law known as the Jones Act — a protectionist law that requires vessels working in US waters be built in the US and be crewed by US workers.
The Coast Guard and the Administration are quick to point out that some foreign technology is being used in the current cleanup effort. Including:
- Canada’s offer of 3,000 meters of containment boom
- Three sets of COSEQ sweeping arms from the Dutch
- Mexico’s offer of two skimmers and 4200 meters of boom
- Norway’s offer of 8 skimming systems
But that is largely technology transferred to US vessels. Some of the best clean up ships – owned by Belgian, Dutch and the Norwegian firms are NOT being used. Coast Guard Lt. Commander, Chris O’Neil, says that is because they do not meet “the operational requirements of the Unified Area Command.” One of those operational requirements is that vessels comply with the Jones Act. “Yes, it does apply,” said ONeil,“ I have heard no discussions of waivers.”
Waivers to the Jones Act were granted by the administration of George W. Bush in the days following hurricane Katrina. And today, the Obama White House said waivers might again be considered.
“If there is the need for any type of waiver, that would obviously be granted,” said White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs. “But, we’ve not had that problem thus far.”
Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is not so sure about that. He’s hearing from the folks back home in Florida, where they want all the skimmer ships they can get. He sent a letter to Admiral Thad Allen today which read in part:
“Admiral, I believe the orange mousse of oil that is now in Florida’s waters is more than enough evidence that we need to take advantage of every appropriate global resource. Please advise as to whether we are taking full advantage of the offers of assistance from other countries.”
June 30th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Congressman Djou WON.
Didn’t take a lie to get in.
June 30th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
So if no waiver is needed from the Jones Act, then how come it keeps coming up???
Huge oil-skimming ship makes Virginia stop en route to Gulf of Mexico
From The Associated Press Published: Friday, June 25, 2010, 11:00 PM
Steve Szkotak of The Associated Press wrote this report.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/huge_oil-skimming_ship_makes_v.html
With no assurances it will be allowed to join the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup, a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world’s largest skimming vessel was preparing to sail Friday evening to the scene of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The ship — the length of 3 1/2 football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day through 12 vents on either side of its bow. It docked in Norfolk en route to the Gulf from Portugal, where it was retrofitted to skim the seas. The ship and its crew of 32 were to leave Virginia waters Friday evening.
Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil.
The Coast Guard, which has received more than 2,000 cleanup proposals, said the supertanker skimmer had survived a preliminary review and was being studied further.
The company said it also needs a waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, which limits the activities of foreign-flagged ships in coastal U.S. waters. The A Whale is Liberian-flagged vessel.
The converted oil tanker has the capacity of holding 2 million barrels, but would limit its holding tanks to 1 million barrels for environmental reasons. Oil skimmed up by the tanker would be separated from seawater, then transferred to another vessel.
Its owners claim the ship could gulp oily water at a daily rate that nearly matches the skimming total to date in the Gulf.
June 30th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Is it surprising that leftie Scott Goold either ignored or failed to read several proofs in the comments ahead of his own? Is anyone shocked to learn that a newspaper that is part of the Democrat establishment keeps trying to trash the Republican who took “their” seat in Congress away from them? Auwe!
June 30th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Attn: Ken Conklin
FreeRepublic is a right-wing blog whose contributors have been debunked by FactCheck and snopes.com more than just about any site on the internet. So it’s not really a surprise that a site that was heavily promoting the ‘Obama is a Muslim’ argument thinks that FactCheck is biased against them.
July 1st, 2010 at 11:06 am
What are all these Hawaii progressives going to do the morning of Nov 3 when it is Governor Duke Aiona and Congressman Charles Djou?
Maybe they will all leave.
Another reason to vote!