Oops! 2002 Document: In Case of Spill, Thad Allen Indicated That Coast Guard Incident Commander (Future Thad Allen) Should Waive Jones Act

USCG Admiral Thad Allen has spent a lot of time of late in front of the television cameras after the White House realized he made a much better face-man than, say, Janet Napolitano (oops -- did I say that out loud?).

 

 
Perhaps some of this time would have been better spent in front of a web browser, where he might have Googled his own 2002 recommendations from the 2002 International Oil Spill Conference (PDF).

Among the national issues identified back in the days of the evil Emperor Chimpy McBushitlerburton was this gem:

Put simply, this document summarizes the '2002 Spill of National Significance Exercise' in -- you guessed it -- the Gulf of Mexico.

A certain Vice Admiral by the name of, uhm, Thad Allen was in command of the entire region.

On page 3 of the document, a process to instantly waive The Jones Act was put in place.

The responsible party (steward) of the process is the United States Coast Guard (USCG).

MARAD (the United States Maritime Administration, responsible for naval defense readiness reserve) and Customs are also involved in vetting the waiver.

In short, Admiral Thad Allen should have instantly requested a waiver of the Jones Act, according to his own 2002 spill response exercise. In fact, the exercise that he helped spearhead identified it as a key -- key! -- issue.

Why isn't this a scandal?

And why is legacy media asleep at the wheel as we near day 73 of the worst maritime environmental disaster in American history? Could it be that President Not-Bush is in office?


Hat tip: CD.