Gulf Oil Spill: Who Knew What When ?

This video is of the NOAA meeting when they decide to declare a national spill emergency. It's weird the president wasn't notified, don't you thinnk? And here I thought the law these people were opreating under required them to alert him and activate the federal national emergency spill containment plan. Apparently the alert never went to the president ... really.

Video from NOAA site shows officials knew quickly of potential for massive oil flow

The video shows that federal officials knew almost immediately, and worried that the oil well could leak up to 110,000 barrels per day, or 4.6 million gallons.

It was filmed in Seattle, at NOAA’s Western Regional Center, as scientists and federal officials in Seattle, Houston and New Orleans engaged in telephone conferences, according to a companion document on the Web site.

To their credit, NOAA, using satellite imagery, knew within days of the explosion there was a looming giant spill problem. They had the coasties reports, outlining how big the oil flow potential was.

But when they got to the fire boom issue, the federal government had none in their stockpile. It would take nearly two months for the first to arrive at the well head, as new manufacturing was their only choice.

And then there’s this… Way back on April 29th, Ron Gouget, who once managed Gulf spill response teams, publicly pilloried the administration’s response to the tragic oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Gouget helped create the 1994 plan that allowed expedited burning of oil as soon as a major spill had occurred — without having to wait for permission or approvals.

Massive regulatory failure.

The video appears on a federal Web site.

And just today BP gets OK to burn off captured oil, gas at sea