Horizon well response: there are those that talk, those that “do”, and those that go white water rafting…

In my earlier post on the Horizon capping efforts, and the gov’t lackluster reponse, I noted there are “talkers” and there are “do’ers”. In that, I highlighted the extreme contrast between how the Obama admin responded, while industry experts were working round the clock to stop the gusher. It leaves one pondering – just what the heck did the O’admin do besides lay the groundwork for litigation against BP, and schedule hearings?

Now we know…. Under public pressure of just what has been done “since day one”, the O’administration decided to issue a timeline of their events. Seems they couldn’t even get that right since they insist the Coast Guard had sent only two cutters to the site, along with a rescue plane and four choppers. But the Coast Guard News on April 21st – the day following the blaze,says they had two cutters on site the day of the original fire – cutters Pompano and Zephyr – and three additional cutters were enroute – cutters Razorbill, Pelican, and Cobia.

Now I know Obama’s deplorable at math and economics, but one would think he could manage to count to five cutters, instead of two.

But wait…. apparently Obama’s not the only one math challenged. What did Homeland Security Sec’y Napolitano tell to Chris Wallace on the May 2nd edition of FOX News Sunday?

JANET NAPOLITANO: Oh, the administration responded with all hands on deck from day one. What happened is the situation itself evolved. The situation evolved from an explosion and a search-and-rescue mission to several days later the actual sinking of the rig. At that point in time, the oil was being burned off on the surface. To the next phase, was that the oil began to spread, and could not all and was not all being burned off on the surface. And then we had assets in place, already pre-deployed, more than 70 vessels, hundreds of thousands of feet of boom. The command center, the integrated command center the commandant referred to was already stood up, with the states involved from day one, I might say.

Obviously Napolitano didn’t okay this WH timeline. She should be mortified at being caught with her knickers around Obama’s knees. This list of “action” from the WH is a Greek column tragedy read in itself. Instead of having “70 vessels” and “hundreds of thousands of fee of boom”, it took three days before they sent a mere eight federal vessels to aid. And those fire booms? Ben Raines of the AL Press Register begs to disagree in his May 3rd story that there was nary a fire boom in sight.

The “In-Situ Burn” plan produced by federal agencies in 1994 calls for responding to a major oil spill in the Gulf with the immediate use of fire booms.

But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.

When federal officials called, Elastec/American Marine, shipped the only boom it had in stock, Jeff Bohleber, chief financial officer for Elastec, said today.

At federal officials’ behest, the company began calling customers in other countries and asking if the U.S. government could borrow their fire booms for a few days, he said.

A single fire boom being towed by two boats can burn up to 1,800 barrels of oil an hour, Bohleber said. That translates to 75,000 gallons an hour, raising the possibility that the spill could have been contained at the accident scene 100 miles from shore.

Even by the WH timeline, it took seven days to lay out only 29,280 feet of boom…. absconded from whomever was close and could provide it…. and eight days before a burn was attempted.

As for our POTUS? He was busy being briefed daily. It took Obama nine days before he spoke publicly, and on the record, about the Horizon rig accident.

Then, of course, there’s a few WH mouthpieces and media pointing fingers at BP by saying the oil giant had told the Coast Guard there were no leaks. Problem is, it wasn’t BP who was checkig for the leaks, or who made that assertion. It was the Coast Guard themselves. Even this is documented on the timeline.

Then, of course, there’s Ron Gouget, an experienced Gulf spill response manager, had to point out the lack of execution by the Coast Guard and government that in any way resembled the contingency plan he helped create back in 1994.

NOAA got busy… doing trajectories and marine pollution reports so everyone had something to chit chat about at all the “meetings” that encapsulates that all-hands-on-deck-since-day-one response.

But wait… this gets worse. Again, a guy at the top of his game since Obama, Jake Tapper, tells us that an Interior Dept head honcho opted to take a white water rafting “business” trip with his wife to the Grand Canyon three days after the leaks were discovered. Oh yeah… the admin says it was business. More pressing business than the Horizon well accident, and the approaching “armaggedon” they claim it will be?

The Stricklands departed for the Grand Canyon three days after the leaks in the Deepwater Horizon pipeline were discovered. Ultimately, after the government realized that the spill was worse than had been previously thought, officials decided that Strickland was needed in the Gulf so Strickland was taken out of the Grand Canyon by a National Park Service helicopter.

One government official, asking for anonymity because of the political sensitivities involved, told ABC News that some Interior Department employees thought it was “irresponsible” for Strickland to have gone on the trip, given the crisis in the Gulf, which was fully apparent at the time he departed for the Grand Canyon.

When asked about Strickland’s trip, Interior Department press secretary Kendra Barkoff told ABC News that “the federal government has been all over this issue from day one in a unified coordinated response.”

Barkoff said that Secretary Salazar deputized Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes “to be the point person on this issue and from the morning after the explosion from the time he got to New Orleans he has been working on this non-stop with the help of other people in the Interior Department as well as other agencies involved.”

An administration source says that Strickland’s trip to the Grand Canyon was work-focused. He was with the director of the National Park Service, Jonathan Jarvis, and Grand Canyon National Park Superintendant Steve Martin, the source said, and they discussed matters such as river flows, beach erosion, humpback chub, tamarisk control, overflights, safety, motor boats, and wilderness management.

Strickland is the right hand man to Interior Sec’y, Ken Salazar… who was getting ready to award the Horizon and Transocean a safety award for the 2nd year in a row.

Embarrassing…. bozos at the helm. maybe Congress should hold hearings on the WH and it’s appointees instead.