Yup

Meantime, in a classic example of the perfect serving as enemy of the good, the EPA refuses to allow whatever Gulf skimmers are operating to release 97 percent clean water back into the Gulf, allowing them to stay on station much longer. Instead, if they can't purify the water beyond 99.9 percent, they must haul all their captured water to shore, fatally shortening the time they can spend on station.

In fact, the Taiwanese-owned "A Whale" skimmer ship 3½ football fields long and 10 stories tall is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup efforts because the owners still lack a waiver of the aforementioned 80-year-old law aimed at protecting unionized U.S. shipping interests, and also because according to The Associated Press "Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil."

You cannot make this stuff up.