Do you think that all is needed on the coast is volunteers to minimize the damage?

The fact that Obama hasn’t made an exemption here of the Jones act is mind boggling to me! This is hurting us more than BP’ bungling of the containing of the leak.

We have an entire fleet of state of the art oil containment ships wanting to help out that are sitting in their ports of call from countries like Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Russia etc. that are expert at oil spill recovery and cannot pitch in all because of this Jones Act BS!!

Repeal it or execute an executive order now Mr. President!! HS this is nuts!!

I think much more effort than that of volunteers is needed. I think we need to study the effects of using dispersant on the oil (now that dissolved oil has been found in the water), and the effect that will have on marine life who eat it.

I think they need to look into these machines that remove oil from water and consider putting those in place.

Volunteers can help, but much more effort is needed.

This is interesting in regard to the machines!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/05/19/2010-05-19_gulf_oil_spill_bp_oks_tests_of_kevin_costners_invention__device_to_clean_oil_fro.html

Also, it takes time to produce those machines…large numbers of people like after Katrina, can be a big help!

I have to agree with @Cruiser. The one-by-one approach to exemptions to the Jones act is unacceptable. There is still no clear authority in charge in the Gulf. Red tape bars each new move to stop the oil. BP personnel have been acting as if they had authority to order reporters away from beaches and prevent interviews with cleanup workers, confiscating or banning cameras and tape recorders. Who made them law enforcement officers and what laws other than “BP PR rules” are they enforcing?

Why is BP still being allowed to dump millions of gallons of untested dispersants into a vital fishing grounds? The dispersants are untested in such conditions and do NOTHING to help. They simply break the oil up and sink it, keeping it out of sight and making it impossible to recover with skimmers or stop with booms. It still goes into coastal areas and the sea-floor breeding grounds killing everything in its path. The only reason BP is pouring on dispersants is to make it impossible to tell how much oil has spilled because fines are set at $/barrel.

I voted for Obama. I still believe he’s dong a better job than we would get with Republicans in charge. They are lining up to apologize to BP and sing the company’s praises. But this is a failure to lead on the Obama Administration’s part. The original disaster can be laid at BP’s foot and at the doorstep of the Bush administration that gave the rig its permit back in 2002 and gutted any meaningful regulation of deep water drilling. But letting the criminals stay in charge at the crime scene (where 11 people lost their lives, I might add) goes straight to Obama’s failure to lead.

@ETpro and @Cruiser why will the Dems not repeal this? Guess both the Dems and Reps are in bed with the oil companies. Sad stuff for the people of La.!

@BoBo1946 The simple fact is our current lifestyle needs the oil companies. It isn’t dems or gopers in bed with the oil companies. It is all of us in bed with the oil companies. We’re still not willing to risk that energy costs might go up for a time if we passed Cap and Trade to make alternative energy more competitive with fossil fuels.

@BoBo1946 I don’t have an answer to that. I would think there must be some logical explanation. The only one I can come up with it is some calculated attempt to make Obama look bad when there is a logical reason he has not yet done this. Again I cannot find one out there.

bottomline guys, nothing ever really changes!

You would correct @ETpro !

@Cruiser maybe, because foreign ships coming in would make it easier for terrorists to put a nuke on one of them. Only answer i could find!

I am not clear if volunteers will help? Is there volunteer work to be done? Do you mean volunteers to help clean up? The man who killed himself, very sad, what did he need? Did he need money? Did he need someone to listen to him? Did he need to be reassured that things will get better and that people understand his difficulty in dealing with this tragedy?

I went through some hurricanes in FL and there were actually people who sent donations of blankets. This is why I ask what people need, I think it is important we know specifically what can help. I think my focus would be specifically on the people affected at a grass roots level, and let the big clean up be left to BP and the government with journalists keeping tabs on progress.