AP – Actor Kevin Costner, left, and St. Bernard Parish, La., President Craig Taffaro Jr., talk on Capitol … 
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Kevin Costner told US lawmakers Wednesday that clean-up operations during the BP oil disaster were a "tangled mess," as the Hollywood star urged Congress to adopt his 895-million-dollar emergency response plan.
Costner -- the on-screen hero of "Waterworld" who has a real life passion for developing oil clean-up technology -- said that 32 of his company's centrifugal oil-water separators leased by BP sat idle while the British energy giant figured out what to do with them.
"Our machines sat on a barge waiting to separate oil and water for days before some boats could even come," Costner told reporters after testifying before the House of Representatives committee on homeland security.
"It was a lack of coordination, it was a tangled mess."
The Oscar-winner had returned to Capitol Hill in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill to pitch his plan, which incorporates oil-separating machines developed by his firm, Ocean Therapy Solutions, along with a fleet of specialized boats for oil collection and eliminating use of dispersant chemicals.
During recovery operations, BP touted its "vessels of opportunity," thousands of small boats -- often private fishermen -- sent out to fight the spill, many of them with no expertise in oil containment.
AP/Alex Brandon
The specialized ships and barges, Costner explained, could react quickly to a spill, skimming large amounts of oily water separating the gunk from the water while offshore, rather than inefficiently bringing the haul to land for processing.
[World's largest wind farm opens off UK coast]
Costner, 55, urged that the same energy and financial resources expended by the oil industry in pursuit of oil be harnessed to protect US waters and coastlines.
"Americans demand that this nightmare that continues to chase us into the 21st Century be solved with real solutions -- solutions that don't depend on dispersants, burning and public relations."
And the plan should be paid for by the oil industry, not taxpayers, he said.
"It should be their responsibility. It's their industry, their accident."
Costner noted that the Gulf of Mexico, where Deepwater Horizon was drilling when it exploded and sank in April, triggering the spill, is home to more than 5,000 production platforms and 27,000 wells.
He said his plan does not envision the BP spill as a worst-case scenario.
"Given the dangerous world that we live in, we have anticipated a situation where five Deepwater Horizons could occur simultaneously."
After spilling a record 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP's Macondo well was declared permanently dead last Sunday.
--
Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.com
scotty@stlouisrenewableenergy.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Post your Comments Below. Spam comments will not be published. webmasters do not store, sell, or spam your email address. Feel Free to You use HTML tags, KEEP IT GREEN, Dont Spam