The number of oil spills occurring in U.S. watersfrom vessels and facilities has decreased steadily over the pastseveral years, and professional oil spill response contractorshave found themselves in the position of bolstering and/orsecuring other lines of work to ensure they remain vigilant,viable, and ready to respond when and where needed. Coupledwith a down economy, spill contractors – like other businesses –are making tough decisions on how to do more with less, whilemaintaining the same level of readiness expected of them fromtheir clients – which includes the oil and maritime industries,along with local, state and federal government. While theregulatory mechanisms are in place to exercise contractorresources between spill events, they are not enforced or utilizedenough. Of equal importance is ensuring that the responsecontractor is compensated for deploying its resources duringthese drill scenarios. This paper will discuss the measures privatesector response contractors are taking to ensure they remainready to respond, other business lines they are pursuing, and howthe regulatory authorities can assist in maintaining the nationalprotection and readiness provided by the private sector responsecommunity. It will also discuss how the private sector responsecommunity can assist with the national Homeland Defenseinitiatives, most notably mitigation services for terrorist actionsthat ultimately impact the environment.
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