I'm living on the Gulf Coast, and given the fact that the now notorious oil leak is in its 58th day, I start wondering.... People get pretty frustrated with the seemingly "Mission Impossible" to stop the leak. Those who think they could easily do so are even more frustrated. As evidenced here in a quote from the Lloyd's List Intelligence:
"AN OFFER by Belgian dredging giant Jan de Nul, (headquartered in Luxembourg), to bring an early end to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was turned down because of a protectionist US law, the company said today.
Jan de Nul offered to send its fallpipe vessel Simon Stevin to the Gulf of Mexico but was frustrated by the US Jones Act, which restricts coastal traffic to vessels built and flagged in the US."
The fallpipe vessel Simon Stevin, navigating under Luxembourg flag is described in this Dutch speaking video, that shows the essential pictures. Read on for a summary.
http://www.tvoost.be/nl/2010-06-09/de-nul-hekelt-aanpak-olievlek/
The video explains that the vessel is equipped with a 1 meter diameter fallpipe, which compares to the 6" pipe being used now. If my math is right that is about a 1:40 difference. The fall pipe is 2,000 meters long. The video shows other equipment that would have been able to build a berm around the marshes.
The Jones Act, acts against common sense.
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