[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11169-11171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
GULF OILSPILL
Mr. LeMIEUX. Mr. President, I just want to make some brief remarks
this afternoon concerning the ongoing tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico and
the Deepwater Horizon response.
Sixty-one days ago is when the tragedy started. We are here, 61 days
later, and we still have this tremendous pouring of oil from the bottom
of the sea floor into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, the amount of oil
that is coming into the gulf now equals the size of the Exxon Valdez
oilspill every 2\1/2\ days.
Yet while this oil continues to gush, and while we have hope that the
containment dome will capture more and more of this oil as it comes
from the bottom of the ocean, we are still seeing a weak, at best,
response from the Federal Government in trying to keep this oil from
coming ashore.
Last week--a week ago tomorrow--I met with the President of the
United States and Admiral Allen in Pensacola. At the same time, I
raised the issue of skimmers. Why are there so few skimmers in the Gulf
of Mexico? Why were there only, at that time, 32 skimmers off the coast
of Florida? The President and Admiral Allen told me they were making
every effort they could to get more skimmers to the gulf and that they
were welcoming skimmers from foreign countries coming to our country to
aid in the effort.
I told them at that time there was a State Department report saying
that 21 offers of assistance have been made from 17 foreign countries,
and they had been refused. I was informed back that, no; that is not
the case and in fact we are using skimmers from foreign countries. I
came to find out, through discussions with my office, there are still
offers and there have been offers from foreign countries for skimmers
and, in fact, those offers were refused.
I will come to the floor tomorrow to talk about that in more detail.
But the state of affairs is there are now only 20 skimmers off the
coast of Florida, when there were 32 last week. There are now just 20,
while there are 2,000 skimmers available in the United States alone.
That number comes from Admiral Allen. I spoke to Admiral Allen last
week, along with my colleague from Alabama, Senator Sessions, and we
said: Where are the skimmers?
I showed him information like I have today, which is the Deepwater
Horizon response report from the incident command in the State of
Florida. Then it showed 20 skimmers. Today it still shows 20 skimmers.
I asked him to reconcile this for me. If we are asking for all these
skimmers, if we are calling for all of them to come here, where are
they? The response is anemic at best. So today I have sent a letter to
Admiral Allen asking for an inventory of the 2,000 skimmers that he has
said are available in the United States of America.
When I talked to the President and Admiral Allen about this last
week, they said: Look, some of these skimmers are not available because
we may need them for an oilspill. Well, we have an oilspill. Just
because they may be required to stand on watch somewhere in case an
oilspill happens someplace else, that is like saying to the people of
Pensacola: Your home is on fire, but we can't send the fire engine
because there may be a fire someplace else. It does not make any sense.
So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter be
printed in the Record, as well as this report from the State of Florida
about the 20 skimmers off the coast of Florida.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC, June 21, 2010.
Admiral Thad W. Allen,
Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard,
Washington, DC.
I am tremendously concerned over the lack of skimmer
vessels responding to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the
Gulf of Mexico. It is clear that we are facing a disaster of
unprecedented size that requires a response with an
unprecedented scope. As a result, every available skimming
resource should be responding to the Gulf to combat the
encroaching oil that is befouling Gulf beaches--including
Florida's.
As of June 20, there were only 20 skimmers responding to
the oil spill in the waters off Florida's coast, yet you have
stated that there are approximately 2,000 skimmers in the
United States alone. For Floridians, these numbers do not add
up.
I respectfully request that you provide me with a current
inventory of all domestic skimmer vessels, including their
current locations and operational responsibilities. Also,
please detail whether each of these skimmers has been
solicited by the Unified Command to assist in the ongoing oil
response.
Also, I am troubled by the apparent lack of communication
between the Unified Command and elected officials regarding
the actual location of skimmers responding in the Gulf on a
daily basis. As a result, I respectfully request a daily
update via e-mail as to the number and location of skimmers
throughout the Gulf region and specifically off Florida's
shores.
More and more environmental and economic damage is being
wrought on the Gulf with each passing day. These damages
should not be further exacerbated by a lack of appropriate
response vessels or poor communication between response
leaders. I appreciate your continued leadership in this
unprecedented effort and look forward to your prompt
response.
Sincerely,
George S. LeMieux,
U.S. Senator.
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[[Page 11171]]
Mr. LeMIEUX. I again call for the fact that every skimmer in the
world that is available should be welcomed by this government. They
should be steaming toward the Gulf of Mexico, and we should be doing
everything we can to make sure we are cleaning up this oil before it
gets on our beaches, before it gets into our estuaries and our coastal
waterways. It is beyond belief we are not doing more. It is beyond
belief this administration has no sense of urgency about stopping the
oil from coming ashore.
I ask, Mr. President--and I will continue to come every day to the
floor to ask the question--where are the skimmers? Where is the help?
Where are the domestic skimmers? Why aren't we doing the job we should
for the American people to protect our beaches, our waterways, and our
estuaries?
Thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I see our distinguished colleague from
Pennsylvania on the Senate floor, and I know he expects to speak for a
little more extended time. He has graciously allowed me to go first.
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