It Feels Like Louisiana Is Being Sacrificed

[Danube]

I was reading today the Congress (Democrats) is acting to quadruple the tax on oil to help with any oil spill cleanups. Obama and the admin was working on Monday issuing letters and meeting "activists" about gaying out the military. The actual spill they have on their hands seems insignificant to them.

Bobby Jindal (the GOP governor I am sure they are in no rush to help) has asked for days for permission from feds to build sand barriers to keep the oil out of the marshes. For it's part, the Army Corps of Engineers said it needs time to study the environmental impact of the sand barriers (called "booms"). Jindal now says he will act on his own and can't wait for feds or USA/COE.

If this happened when Bush was prez we would be getting shrill news 24/7. Kids would be holding grief seminars in their schools for all the dying wildlife. Some UN environmental agency would be talking about international crimes against the environment.

Obama has taken another drop in the polls (43% strongly disapprove) so I suspect even people on the left are noticing the deliberate inaction. Good chance the worse this spill gets the more of an "opportunity" it will present for the drastic action O&Co are so fond of.


"Jindal tired of waiting for approval, to build sand booms"


(NECN: Barataria Bay, La.) - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said the state will not waiting for federal approval to begin building sand barriers to protect the coastline from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Oil has pushed at least 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes, with two major pelican rookeries awash in crude.

Gov. Jindal was critical of the amount of boom his state received to ward off the oil seeping toward the coastline. But his major gripe comes at the expense of the Army Corps of Engineers, who have yet to give the go-ahead for the building of sand booms to protect the Louisiana wetlands. He used photographic evidence of oil breaking through hard booms, soft booms and another layer of protection, before being finally being corralled by a sand boom built by the National Guard.

"It is so much better for us. We don't want oil on one inch of Louisiana's coastline, but we'd much rather fight this oil off of a hard coast, off of an island, off of an island, off of a sandy beach on our coastal islands, rather than having to fight it inside in these wetlands," Gov. Jindal said, making the case for sand booms.

The governor said he has been forced to protect Louisiana without the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is weighing the ecological impact of the construction of more sand booms.

"We are not waiting for them. We are going to build it," Jindal said.

"We can either fight battle -- we can fight this oil -- on the Barrier Islands 15 to 20 miles off of our coast, or we can face it in thousands of miles of fragmented wetlands," Gov. Jindal said, clearing favoring the first option. "Every day we're not given approval on this emergency permit to create more of these sand booms is another day when that choice is made for us, as more and more miles of our shore are hit by oil."

The oil spill, which has lasted 33 days since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, has yet to be stopped by British Petroleum at the source. The situation is dire for Gulf coast states.

"It is clear the resources needed to protect our coast are still not here," Gov. Jindal said. "Oil sits and waits for cleanup, and every day that it waits for cleanup more of our marsh dies."

http://www.necn.com/05/23/10/Jindal...l-to-/landing.html?blockID=240006&feedID=4215

 

[Danube]

"Jindal questions spill response; Coast Guard official takes blame "


CHAUVIN, La. - After a helicopter tour with Coast Guard officials over miles of Terrebonne Parish coastline, Gov. Bobby Jindal called on BP and the federal government to act with more urgency.

"The day we feared is upon us. The heavy oil has made landfall,” Jindal said.“We've got to do everything we can to fight this oil away from our wetlands -- keep it away from this fragile coast."

His comments filled with frustration, Jindal described a lack of action in keeping the oil out.

He says Terrebonne needs more boom, and points out, crews have only deployed half of the 76,000 feet of boom the parish does have.

"It shouldn't be up to BP to decide when the boom gets deployed, or when the skimmers get deployed. So, one of the reasons we brought the Coast Guard with us today, was to see for themselves -- the boom's not out there,” Jindal said.“The oil's coming in. It doesn't do any us any good to have skimmers sitting in trailers and boom sitting on docks. It needs to be deployed now."

The oil mass continues moving west, and as the toxic sludge begins to make landfall in Terrebonne, Capt. Edwin Stanton, who heads up the Coast Guard's response, is taking blame.

"The governor is right. It's too slow, and if it's anybody's fault, it's mine, for not pushing (BP) hard enough perhaps,” Stanton said.“We did have a problem with getting boom down here to begin with, but there seems to be boom that is in the staging areas that needs to be put out."


http://www.wwltv.com/news/gulf-oil-...ast-Guard-official-takes-blame--94624594.html

 

[monovillage]

Honestly, did you expect any different performance from the Feds and this administration? I didn't.

 

[Throckmorton]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
Ronald Reagan

Ah I see, now the Deep South is begging for the government's help. So much for the free market compelling BP to do the right thing, now it's up to the Coast Guard!

 

[TwinsenTacquito]

The deep south has plenty of pro government people. Did you forget Katrina?

Please evac.
We'll provide evac.
Ok, now that you didn't evac, we'll save you.
Stop shooting at us, please.
Oh, George Bush doesn't care about black people. I forgot that is the reason.

 

[dmcowen674]

Democrats quadruple the tax on oil to help with any oil spill cleanups.

BP spills and we all have to pay.

Sounds like we were all sacrificed

 

[Nebor]

Who fucking cares. Louisiana is waste of space, full of corruption and inbreeding. All three gulf states can all just fall off into the oil slick for all I care. And I live in Louisiana. I prefer to stay in Afghanistan rather than go back to Louisiana. It's nicer here.

 

[Kappo]

Who fucking cares. Louisiana is waste of space, full of corruption and inbreeding. All three gulf states can all just fall off into the oil slick for all I care. And I live in Louisiana. I prefer to stay in Afghanistan rather than go back to Louisiana. It's nicer here.

So, because YOU don't like the south means they should just suffer because of your little emo nerd rage tantrum? Do explain!

 

[Linflas]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
Ronald Reagan

Ah I see, now the Deep South is begging for the government's help. So much for the free market compelling BP to do the right thing, now it's up to the Coast Guard!

Sounds to me like Jindal is asking the government to 1) do their job regarding taking care of an issue that is occurring 40 miles off their shore and 37 miles out of their jurisdictional limit and 2) Get the fuck out of their way to allow them to do what they think they need to do in their state to mitigate damage.

 

[Darwin333]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
Ronald Reagan

Ah I see, now the Deep South is begging for the government's help. So much for the free market compelling BP to do the right thing, now it's up to the Coast Guard!

If the Feds would have given us our fair share of offshore oil revenue, revenue that other states already enjoy, we could have rebuilt our wetlands which would have minimized the affects of the hurricanes. If the Federal Government hadn't cut corners and screwed the pooch when THEY built the levees Katrina would have been a non-issue for most of Louisiana (the far southern regions actually got hit with the storm, NOLA dodged a bullet till the levees broke, and the east was fucked by a FEDERAL navigation channel that was largely unnecessary and acted as a funnel for the water pushed by the hurricane).

Now the FEDERAL government leases land in the gulf to BP. BP drills for oil in which the FEDERAL government will profit from. The FEDERAL regulators fail to ensure that their own rules are followed and allows BP to screw the pooch, again on land leased from the FEDERAL government.

Now that Louisiana is paying the price for actions that the FEDERAL government intended to profit from and Louisiana had no part (or say) in, you have the nerve to say "Ah I see, now the Deep South is begging for the government's help."

On behalf of the state and the people that provide ONE THIRD of your oil and gas, energy that the rest of the country quite literally can not live without, I would like to simply say FUCK YOU .

We are getting real damned tired of this "Louisiana begging" bullshit. There is a ton of talk amongst the shrimpers and the fishermen to start a blockade of all that stuff we supply that the rest of the country seems to take for granted. Lets see what your saying when they shut down tanker traffic to the LOOP and the close down the River and the ports north of them. It would take a hellofa lot more than the Coast Guard to deal with a ton of pissed off Coonasses I can guarantee you that.

Personally, I wish for nothing more than Jindal to stop "begging" for help. I hope he posts Nat. Guard at the LOOP and simply turns the spigot off. I would enjoy nothing more than watching you bastards beg for a change and beg you will. Lets see how far your civics go when there is no gas to be found. Lets see how well you do when a substantial amount of your nat gas (and tons of other petrochemicals) vanishes in an instant. Commerce in this country will damn near grind to a halt in the matter of days. We hold all the cards in this game and we are about to start acting like it, with or without the assistance of the state government.

Yall keep fucking with us, those boys down in Dularge, Chauvin, Laffite (Barataria Bay), Grand Isle, Port Fourchon, Venice/Buras and the rest of the bayou towns don't play around when you back them into a corner. The Federal government was a complicit partner in the actions that have led to fucking up/potentially fucking up waters they have worked on for 100s of years. Our Parish presidents have put forth plans to protect their coasts for weeks now and no one is listening, not BP and not the Federal government. Yall keep on pushing ya hear, those coonasses will push back real soon and when they do YOU will be the ones begging and you won't be able to do a damned thing about it. Hell, you can't even get your ships up the river without those coonasses piloting the ship.

 

[ayabe]

More basic bullshit without any understanding of what's occurring. The rules put in place after Valdez are being adhered to, the company is responsible and the government is overseeing things.

Wanna know why the Feds haven't done more? Because they don't have the fucking expertise or equipment, only BP does. The Coast Guard has admitted as much. We're totally at their mercy because we have no plan B, this is an unprecedented disaster and we have to wing it.

At this point it's time to stop fucking around and blow damn the thing up and seal it. Actually this should have been done weeks ago.

As for LA getting screwed out of oil revenues, that's your own fucking fault. Your politicians are dumbest fucks around - you all are complicit in your serfdom and are happy to take whatever deal you can get to keep the jobs coming. So cry me a river, you could have the same deal as Alaska if you wanted it.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I agree with Ayabe

Everybody who wants the government to take over the spill doesn't have a clue! That would be like having some type of incident on the moon with a Nasa space craft and expecting the government to take over from Nasa.

Maybe Bobby Jindal should jump in his little sub and run down there a mile to the sea floor and fix this shit himself People don't want to except reality, I guess their little fantasy worlds where the King can wave his magic wand and fix it makes them sleep better at night

 

[squirrel dog]

I too live in Louisiana.Its day 35 or so and no one seems to be the leader,or in control.Certainly not the current administration.Other than sending down one clueless individual after another,nothing has been done.Stern letters and congressional hearings will not fix this problem.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I think it absurd to think "Louisiana Is Being Sacrificed". The government has every reason to minimize the damage.

Do any of you have the knowledge and expertise to know if sand barriers themselves will do environmental damage? I would guess that Louisiana just pulled this one out of their ass or they would already know.

Nobody had a plan in place for this situation, not the states, not BP, not the feds. There are no experts with training and knowledge to call on, no experimental data for a good assessment, no models to make any projections. Is it any wonder that things are not going well?

I personally don't have enough information to apportion blame at this stage. I doubt that anybody does.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

At this point it's time to stop fucking around and blow damn the thing up and seal it. Actually this should have been done weeks ago.

The problem is, just like everything else that has and will be tried, there is no guarntee that this will work as it has never been tried 1 mile under the water. And this particular idea unlike some of the others has the huge risk of making the spill worse if it doesn't work.

I would like to see some of the other options tried first like the "top kill" and use the explosive option as a last resort.

 

[CycloWizard]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
Ronald Reagan

Ah I see, now the Deep South is begging for the government's help. So much for the free market compelling BP to do the right thing, now it's up to the Coast Guard!

What would you do if I handcuffed you to a radiator in your house and set the place on fire? I assume you'd yell at me to come uncuff you so you could escape. The federal government has regulated exactly how this spill can be dealt with both by BP and surrounding states, effectively tying the hands of those who might otherwise be able to fix the problem, then you blame everything on the free market.

 

[Danube]

I think it absurd to think "Louisiana Is Being Sacrificed". The government has every reason to minimize the damage.

Not this admin - they like damage. They want nothing to do with this spill but oh they can use it to raise taxes


WASHINGTON (AP) - Responding to the massive BP oil spill, Congress is getting ready to quadruple—to 32 cents a barrel—a tax on oil used to help finance cleanups. The increase would raise nearly $11 billion over the next decade.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9FTDV7O1&show_article=1

 

[Darwin333]

More basic bullshit without any understanding of what's occurring. The rules put in place after Valdez are being adhered to, the company is responsible and the government is overseeing things.

Wanna know why the Feds haven't done more? Because they don't have the fucking expertise or equipment, only BP does. The Coast Guard has admitted as much. We're totally at their mercy because we have no plan B, this is an unprecedented disaster and we have to wing it.

Bullshit. We have had plans ready to go for WEEKS. It took our AG to threaten to sue to get the damned COE to authorize making sand barriers. Go feed that bullshit to someone who isn't smack dab in the middle of it. I know exactly what is going on, who is doing what and who isn't doing what. I have been actually getting my hands dirty cleaning this shit up on my own time. We have parishes going broke spending money to protect their coastlines because the Feds nor BP will pony up the money to do it.

As for LA getting screwed out of oil revenues, that's your own fucking fault. Your politicians are dumbest fucks around - you all are complicit in your serfdom and are happy to take whatever deal you can get to keep the jobs coming. So cry me a river, you could have the same deal as Alaska if you wanted it.

Same deal as Alaska, give me a fucking break? Our politicians have been trying to get our fair share for a decade. We lose more and more of our coast every single day (without the oil), caused in no small part from providing this country with the energy it needs. We can fix it our damned self if we got a fair deal, the same deals other states enjoy, but since we had some dumbfuck politicians decades ago the answer is "fuck us and our wetlands, but yall keep sending that oil our way ya hear"? Decades ago we had some dumbfucks that allowed the Feds to screw us, you are correct in that but lets keep it to the last decade or so. So pretty please, elaborate on what you mean by its our own fault (in the last decade).

We can't build a solar farm in the middle of the fucking desert because of the mating ritual of some lizard but continuing to let one of the most diverse wildlife populations on the planet disappear is no big deal. The best part is we aren't asking for you to pay to fix it, just give us our fair share and we will do it ourselves.

Like I said, we will get our fair shake when this is all said and done. I guarantee it. Yall done pissed off the wrong people and WE hold all the cards. You fuckers need US not the other way around and I have a feeling you are going to figure that out the hard way very soon and there isn't a damned thing you will be able to do about it. Maybe you are right, maybe our politicians have been way to soft in their "requests", they should have added an "or else" a long time ago. The local boys ain't gonna "ask" for shit. I am on those boats 3 days a week helping with the cleanup and I hear the same thing on every boat and every dock I step foot on.

 

[ericlp]

The BP spill kinda sounds like this one, Ixtoc I, well blowout

In the next nine months, experts and divers including Red Adair were brought in to contain and cap the oil well.[6] Approximately an average of ten thousand to thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf until it was finally capped on 23 March 1980, nearly 10 months later.[7] Prevailing currents carried the oil towards the Texas coastline. The US government had two months to prepare booms to protect major inlets. Eventually, in the US, 162 miles (261 km) of beaches and 1421 birds were affected by 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil.[7] Pemex spent $100 million to clean up the spill and avoided paying compensation by asserting sovereign immunity.[8]

The oil slick surrounded Rancho Nuevo, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which is one of the few nesting sites for Kemp's Ridley sea turtles. Thousands of baby sea turtles were airlifted to a clean portion of the Gulf of Mexico to help save the rare species.


I imagine that it's going to take about the same amount of time sadly. Prepare for the worst. As people keep saying this is Obama's problem and he's not doing enough. What should he be doing? Send the US navy subs and nuke it? It would be really interesting to see how Bush would have handled this situation. Maybe we should have our government form some soft of oil recovery and disaster branch. Since we have tons of oil rigs dotting our coast line, I can't imagine this being the last spill. Hopefully we have some sort of back up plan with "EXPERTS" in place that know how to handle this to get it fixed as soon as possible when it happens again.

Tho I'm kinda disappointed myself. I kinda wonder if they have started drilling a new well so that they can cap the old one? I hope some progress is being made on that since I feel that is going to be the over all solution.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Seems like a similar situation as AZ has.

The Federal government refuses to do its job but needs time to study the situation in an attempt to do their job. the studies were previously done and appropriate responses layed out. However, because those sutdies were done by someone else; they are not considered to be valid.

 

[heyheybooboo]

I agree with Ayabe

Everybody who wants the government to take over the spill doesn't have a clue! That would be like having some type of incident on the moon with a Nasa space craft and expecting the government to take over from Nasa.

Maybe Bobby Jindal should jump in his little sub and run down there a mile to the sea floor and fix this shit himself People don't want to except reality, I guess their little fantasy worlds where the King can wave his magic wand and fix it makes them sleep better at night

Watch it, Bub

Don't interject reality into rage and hypocrisy.

I know folks are getting really frustrated but the interjection of partisanship (yeah, I'm looking right at you, Jindal) is almost reaching the pathetic stage.

I say let Jindal build ALL the barriers he wants to build (talk about pissing in the GOM ) and let the taxpayers of the Great State of Louisiana pay for all of it.

They may then feel free to take BP to court and seek reimbursement.

From Port Arthur to Bay St. Louis he can build 1000+ miles of barriers. Have at it, Bobby. Youduhman!

Look out for that first big tropical depression or hurr'cane, though. And when you build the barrier over there and the oil washes up over here, feel free to run around like a chicken with his head cut off.

Because that's what your dumb ass looks like right now ....




--

 

[ericlp]

We can't build a solar farm in the middle of the fucking desert because of the mating ritual of some lizard but continuing to let one of the most diverse wildlife populations on the planet disappear is no big deal. The best part is we aren't asking for you to pay to fix it, just give us our fair share and we will do it ourselves.

Yeah, but that wasn't the REAL reason... Bush didn't want it built. Majority of oil is traded on the green back and ANYTHING competing with that or the big oil stocks was off limit for the bush nut jobs.

How ya liking it so far?

 

[PJABBER]

When this story broke, I posted that I had some conversations with several Congressional staffers and political operatives that the feds were not going to do much so that Jindal, a prospective Republican presidential candidate, would be hung out to dry. Whether or not that was ever actually the case, the blowback is now going not toward Jindal but the Obama Administration.

The election is over. But what would have been the response if the results had been different?

Obama Should Send Sarah Palin to Louisiana

by Jason Killian Meath

President Barack Obama could use Sarah Palin about right now. With oil gushing into the Gulf and no end in sight, Palin appeared on Fox News Sunday demanding an answer why President Obama is “”taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico.”

It is no surprise Palin should grasp the BP disaster better than Obama. She was Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the state’s oil and gas fields for safety and ethics. Palin was a whistleblower on the commission, turning in a fellow Republican who was leaking information to oil insiders.

As a former governor of Alaska, she presided over 20 percent of America’s domestically produced oil production – big, unforgiving outposts like Prudhoe Bay, North America’s largest oil field. In fact, it is her knowledge of big oil that thrust her into America’s living rooms.

During the summer of 2008, as Americans grappled with record high gas prices, Palin had a practical appeal to John McCain’s Presidential campaign. Palin may not have had international savvy, but she had something to say about energy and how to handle the big oil companies.

Scan the skyline of downtown Anchorage and nearly every tall building reads like an interstate pit stop – Shell, Exxon, BP. A governor here must learn the oil business, while being mindful not to become a shill for the international conglomerates who play high stakes. What’s more, the Exxon Valdez was a hard learned lesson in Alaska that taught generations of Alaskans a hard lesson about co-existing with oil in your backyard.

So, when Sarah Palin was governor, she was no pushover.

She earned a reputation for not bending to the oil companies’ will, sometimes at great political risk. When she was thrust on the national stage, Palin brought moxie – and much-added ‘mojo’ – to John McCain’s foundering campaign. The strategy seemed simple, almost elegant: let Palin talk tough about America’s energy independence and the war hero handles national security. McCain and Palin were a dynamic duo for a few weeks, until the Lehman Brothers crisis and talk of bailouts ended their appeal.

But now, it seems Sarah Palin deserves yet another look. She’s the energizer bunny of politicians – a hockey mom from Wasilla who looks just as comfortable in a hard hat as she does in a red leather jacket. One can easily picture her in a room full of brainy engineers declaring, ‘This is a time to grab the grizzly by the ear and cap this gusher.’ The White House is already spending time they clearly don’t have in the midst of this crisis belittling Palin’s take-charge approach. And there will be those who will chastise her for her ‘Drill Baby Drill’ position — and they will conveniently forget this is Obama’s exact position. But in a crisis, Palin’s leadership style stands in sharp contrast to Obama’s community leader approach.

The President is disturbingly comfortable waiting and watching to see how others handle a problem, while watching the Gulf of Mexico become the world’s largest pool of gelatinous goo.

April 18, 2007, Juneau, Alaska – Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today announced the “Petroleum Systems Integrity Office” (PSIO), her initiative to ensure Alaska’s oil and gas infrastructure will get the maintenance and inspection it needs to operate safely for decades to come.

Governor Palin’s Administrative Order 234, signed April 18, 2007, creates the PSIO as an independent office inside the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Division of Oil and Gas, with specific responsibilities and authorities to coordinate the state’s permitting, oversight and compliance functions with all other responsible agencies.

PSIO addresses lax maintenance practices on the North Slope that came to light last year after corroded pipelines spilled 200,000 gallons of oil, leading to production shut-downs at Prudhoe Bay and interruption in the flow of oil revenue to the state, she said.

PSIO requires industry to establish and maintain quality assurance programs, and requires the state to inspect facilities to ensure operators comply with those programs. PSIO will also search for any gaps in laws, regulations or industry practices that threaten the integrity of the state’s oil and gas infrastructure. If necessary, the office will step in and exert the state’s authority as issuer of development leases to ensure the system and the state’s interests are protected.

Under PSIO, state and federal agencies will retain their own responsibilities: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for environmental protection; Alaska Department of Natural Resources for land and water use, habitat protection, unit and lease management, and coastal zone management; and the U.S. Department of Transportation for the trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). But their efforts will be better coordinated, and any gaps in oversight will be better filled, through PSIO, the governor said.

“No other state has taken such bold steps to make sure the operators of oil and gas facilities are properly maintaining their own equipment,” Palin said. “Alaska is the first state to make operators share their maintenance and quality assurance programs with the state. We’re the first state to make operators document that they are complying with those programs. We’re the first state to conduct inspections to verify they are complying with those programs.

 

[nonlnear]

You lost me at "gaying out the military".

What exactly do you want Obama to do personally about the spill with HIS time? He doesn't KNOW anything about oil spills. Even if he were to throw every available federal resource at the spill there would still be no benefit to him canceling everything else on his agenda to come down and manage or give moral support.

I have never understood this childlike need so many people have for an empathetic leader figure who rushes to every crisis. I didn't know so many people had residual abandonment issues!

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Seems like a similar situation as AZ has.

The Federal government refuses to do its job but needs time to study the situation in an attempt to do their job. the studies were previously done and appropriate responses layed out. However, because those sutdies were done by someone else; they are not considered to be valid.

Ha, Ha! You so funny

Please point us to these "studies" which lay out an appropriate response for a well blowout 1 mile below the oceans surface. I guess from your perspective a proper response is to stick your head in the sand and blame Obama. Why not? that seems to be the standard reponse for everything, healthcare, immigration, financial reform, evironmental disasters, etc...
I'm sure you guys probably blame him for the weather also