Barrel Strength

One of the issues that has diminished the efficiency of the cleanup is the reluctance on part of Obama to suspend the Jones Act,  which Bush did after Hurricane Katrina and Rita.   This reluctance is obviously in deference to his union base.  This week we will find how closely he is bonded to his union base as this foreign ship makes its way to Gulf of Mexico.

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…

Its owners claim the ship could gulp oily water at a daily rate that nearly matches the skimming total to date in the Gulf.