Organization InformationNews Releases
Friday, July 09, 2010 - SCA Weekly Round-Up ... 7/9/2010
Dallas' Allegiance Capital's push to help gulf oil spill cleanup may not be so clear
WASHINGTON – When Dallas investment banker Fred McCallister told the Senate last week about his effort to get more foreign ships to clean up oil in the Gulf of Mexico, he blamed a maritime law that protects U.S. ship owners and workers.
In fact, McCallister's effort stalled because BP didn't think the skimmers proposed by his firm, Allegiance Capital Corp., could do the job. Yet he told senators that he hadn't gotten any response to his offer, even though BP's response had come a day earlier.
Also left unsaid to the senators or reporters who interviewed him: Allegiance found the vessels with the help of its chairman's brother, Kenneth Mahmood, who served 18 months in prison in Washington state during the 1980s for theft and securities fraud.
For full story, click: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/070810dnbusallegiance.1fef79f.html
US Government Takes Control Over Gulf Oil Spill Website
This week, the US government launched a new website, http://www.restorethegulf.gov/, that will become the lead in information regarding the Gulf Oil Spill. The website will replace http://deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, though that website will still remain active and link to the new government site. More details on the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to create the site are found in the article below.
This week, the US government launched a new website, http://www.restorethegulf.gov/, that will become the lead in information regarding the Gulf Oil Spill. The website will replace http://deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, though that website will still remain active and link to the new government site. More details on the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to create the site are found in the article below.
US to take more control of spill response website
The Associated Press
Sunday, July 4, 2010
By HARRY R. WEBER
HOUSTON - The US government is expected to take over control of the central information website on the Gulf oil spill response that has been run jointly by various agencies and BP for the 2 1/2 months since the rig explosion.
The Department of Homeland Security wants a one-stop shop for information that is completely overseen by the government as it settles into the long-haul of dealing with the response to the disaster. The U.S. Coast Guard falls under Homeland Security's authority.
BP and the federal government are part of a unified command that is working together to try to contain the oil gusher, but the government has been directing BP at every turn.
A DHS spokesman told The Associated Press on Sunday that the joint relationship won't change when the website is given a dot-gov address instead of a dot-com address.
But who can post information to the site would change.
Details are still being worked out.
The spokesman, Sean Smith, said the government wants to be as transparent as possible and increase Americans'
access to information.
BP is helping pay for the current website. The government could still bill BP when it takes over the site.
The http://deepwaterhorizonresponse.com site may still be maintained during the changeover, but ultimately it will be taken down altogether when the government moves the response information to its own website.
A BP spokesman did not immediately respond to several requests for comment on the move, which could occur within days.
A frequent critic of the administration's response to the oil spill, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., was skeptical the change would amount to much.
"Given that the government taking over the cleanup hasn't exactly fixed things, it's hard to imagine the government taking over a website making things much better either,"
Issa, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.
"In recent weeks, we've heard directly from local officials pleading for less bureaucracy, more resources and expressing an overall frustration with this administration's apparent pre-occupation with the public relations surrounding this catastrophe," he said.
Copyright (c) 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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