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US Accepts International Assistance for Gulf Spill

By Carmen Dixon on Jun 30th 2010 9:05AM
Filed under: News, President Obama

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US Accepts International Assistance for Gulf Spill

Yesterday, day 70 of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department announced that the United States has agreed to accept international help for the cleanup. As of now, the United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations. According to a State Department news release, the government is still negotiating the details of that assistance.

The Associated Press reports that "more than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill, and the United States hasn't made a final decision on most of the offers." Well, what's taking so long? This is not about American ego, this is about getting as many resources deployed to the Gulf as quickly as possible to help preserve as much of the ocean and coast as possible, right?Well, the good news is that some international help has been in place, although it has not been talked about formally. "Most of the countries and groups have offered skimmers, boom or dispersant chemicals, according to a chart on the State Department's website.

"To be clear, the acceptance of international assistance we announced today did not mean to imply that international help was arriving only now," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "In fact, before today, there were 24 foreign vessels operating in the region, and nine countries had provided boom, skimmers and other assistance."

He said as early as May 11th, "boom arrived from Mexico, Norway and Brazil."

But as you've probably guessed, this assistance doesn't come cheap. Countries expect to be paid for their help with the Gulf oil spill crisis. Information from the State Department indicates that "offers have been accepted from six countries: Canada, Mexico, Croatia, Holland, Norway and Japan. Offers also were accepted from two groups: the International Maritime Organization and the Monitoring and Information Center, which is operated by the European Commission.

The two organizations are offering technical assistance. Mexico, Norway, Holland and Japan are providing skimmers; Canada is providing containment boom; and Croatia is pitching in with technical advice."

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