OK, following up on this the reactions may be very typical knee-jerk and maybe, just maybe she didn't come across well enough in the 30 second sound bite. Reading this stuff does a better job of flushing out what she may have been talking about.
This is from a Blog that is pretty good with things naval and maritime and this particular blogger is Dutch or Belgian IIRC.
Information Dissemination: Deepwater Horizon: Dutch Point Of View
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In Dutch media I'm reading an increasing criticism regarding the response to the oil spill in the Mexican Gulf and the use of their expertise and equipment.
So, first, the timeline according to the Dutch press and press-releases from Dutch companies and governments:
* April 25. Only 3 days after the accident with the oil platform the Dutch offered their skimmers to combat the oil spill. According to the Dutch consul-general in Housten the reaction of the American government was that help was not needed, because they could handle it themselves.
* May 6. Dutch research institute Deltares and dredging company Van Oord propose an inovative concept to combat the oil spill. The US government has been alerted to the existence of this proposal through the contacts that have been established between the 2 governments since hurricane Katrina.
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more...
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* May 28. The Dutch have offered 3 sets of sweeping arms, after a US request. T&T Marine Salvage, which has been hired by BP, will use these skimmers. They should be operational next week.
* June 16. Boskalis has gotten a contract to deliver sand to make barriers to protect the Lousiana coast, based on the proposal from May 6.
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And now for the critique.
One thing that always pops up is the Jones Act, or more correctly Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act from 1920. In practice the Act means that foreign vessels can't be employed in the oil spill.
Boskalis has a local company, Stuyvesant Dredging with a US flagged ship, so that's how they were able to get a contract.
The US thinks that the sand barriers will take 9 months to be completed, but Belgian dredgers claim they can do it in 4. They also say the Jones Act is the reason the US is using antiquated technology to combat the oil spill. The European companies, of which the Dutch and Belgians ones are seen as the best in the field by most, buy their ships in the Middle East for only halve the cost of building it in the US.
The company that manufactures the skimmers that have been sent, has said that had the US allowed them from the beginning to use their skimmers they could have done this clean-up with their eyes closed. This is because the skimmers have the capacity to clean up the amount of oil that is leeking in 7 hours.
They also say the USCG was well aware of the skimmers and have visited the company 3 times in the past.
But now the skimmers are in use, the company that manufactures them says they are not being used right. They say communication with the Americans is going slowly and they do not listen to the Dutch instructors. Currently only 5% of their actual capacity is being used, because BP is sending the ships too close to the source. The problem is that the oil is not very thick there, reducing the effectiveness of the skimmers.
The communication between the USCG, BP and T&T Marine could also be a lot better, the Dutch company says. Now it is 'too many chiefs, not enough indians'.
Cargo capacity is also a problem, and because of the Jones Act, foreign ships with a cargo capacity 3 times that of US ships cannot be deployed.
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There is more, and at the blog many of the links go to Dutch sites that I can't read.
While I'm no Palin fan (naughty librarian looks aside) it looks as though she may have been on to something and not just looking at the lights from nearby Russia.
Read it -
Information Dissemination