Thad Allen, National Incident Commander said today at a press briefing, “There are hundreds of thousands of patches of oil in the Gulf of Mexico,” as a result of British Petroleum’s catastraphuk. He went onto say, “The ultimate impact of the spill, the amount of tarballs…will be the subject of long-term surveillance. Our goal would be to keep as much of it off the beaches as we can.”

The surprising thing about these comments:

If this is the case, then why last week did British Petroleum stop awarding contracts for oils skimmers and protective boom? The amount of skimmers in the water has been reduced by almost 700 vessels and The DRC group which alone had contracted 480 vessels to lay protective boom and skim oil, has reduced by half their fleet in the water due to the lost contracts.

Why is British Petroleum backing off efforts to skim oil and protect the beaches and more importantly, why is Thad Allen, you know…the guy running the show, allowing them to do it?

No surprise; it would seem BP is still mostly concerned about their bottom line, about the count of oil that is skimmed, because each time cleanup workers skim a barrel’s worth, BP’s fine increases.

Still surprising is BP getting away with these decisions. Every time they do, Thad Allen’s credibility diminishes.

Read the articles:

Patches of Oil – Times Picayune

Oil could keep washing ashore for weeks – Times Picayune

Have a nice day.