Help Has Been on the Way
Nicolas Loris /
The optimist in you might say, “Better late than never.” The pessimist in you might ask, “What took so long?” On June 29, over seventy days after the Gulf oil spill, the U.S. Department of State released the following statement:
The National Incident Command and the Federal On Scene Coordinator have determined that there is a resource need for boom and skimmers that can be met by offers of assistance from foreign governments and international bodies. The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan. We are currently working out the particular modalities of delivering the offered assistance. Further details will be forthcoming once these arrangements are complete.