Suggested Questions for the Media

We suggest that you bookmark this page as we will add more questions between now and the April 20 announcement of the finalists.

1. Why are sorbents steadfastly prevented from entry and excluded from consideration, even ones certified through the EPA's National Contingency Plan as safe for use on open water?

2. How can the Challenge be a fair opportunity to obtain the fastest, safest, and most efficient environmentally sustainable approach to oil spill cleanup with rules that prohibit promising alternatives to the status quo?

3. Your guidelines expressly acknowledge that skimmers always leave a substantial amount of oil in the water. The test criteria conveniently create a low recovery threshold of 70 % for qualification (dismissing sorbents known to have 99% recovery). Is the X Challenge intentionally lowering all expectations? How far below 99% is the X Challenge willing to accept as a “winner?”