Louisiana's Vanishing Coast

"...like disintegrating lace..."

That's how the authors of the NOLA series on Louisiana's vanishing coast describe what's left of the land and marsh that make up our southern parishes.

I've been searching for reliable sources to read so I can learn more about this subject and this NOLA series, partnered with the New York Times, is my starting point. In a series of articles the authors introduce us to various communities and people in south Louisiana who are watching not only their land but also their homes and their culture and way of life disappear.

It's heartbreaking and from this early stage of my reading it doesn't appear there are any clear answers.  It doesn't appear that any amount of money thrown at this problem will be able to solve it.

The series of articles point fingers at a number of culprits: rising sea levels due to climate change, a series of destructive storms, oil companies who built and widened canals but never repaired them when they left, the construction of levees to control the Mississippi, and even plagues of insects and rodents who destroy vegetation.

This article about the community of Jean Lafitte, located just south of New Orleans, chronicles the efforts of the mayor, Timmy Kerner, who has adopted the strategy of improving his community to the point that it would be more economically feasible to save it from erosion than to let it go:

His strategy was to secure so much public investment for Jean Lafitte that it would eventually become too valuable to abandon. In a decade, he had built a 1,300-seat auditorium, a library, a wetlands museum, a civic center and a baseball park. Jean Lafitte did not have a stoplight, but it had a senior center, a medical clinic, an art gallery, a boxing club, a nature trail and a visitor center where animatronic puppets acted out the story of its privateer namesake.  

Some of the facilities had been used sparingly, and many at the grand opening questioned whether the seafood pavilion would be much different. To the mayor that was largely beside the point. What mattered was that the structure existed, that its poured concrete and steel beams made Lafitte that much more permanent. "Do we lose that investment, or do we protect it?" Kerner asked...

The authors, Kevin Sack and John Schwartz, point out that a fourth of our wetlands are already gone and in fifty years 2,000 square miles could also go.  In human terms:

The Gulf Restoration Network, a nonprofit conservation group, calculates that there are 358,000 people and 116,000 houses in Louisiana census tracts that would be swamped in the surge of a catastrophic hurricane by 2062. The Geological Survey predicts that in 200 years the state's wetlands could be gone altogether.

As Sack and Schwartz report it, the community of Jean Lafitte and everything else south of that New Orleans levee has basically been abandoned to the elements with the Corps of Engineers advocating relocation of the people.  But that's not to say that nobody is trying to solve the problem. There are lots of committees, levee boards, ecologists, politicians, environmentalists, and other experts working to find and agree on solutions.  And then there is the ever present problem of funding.

There are so many factors at play in this issue. This NOLA series is a great place to start learning about it, which is what I'm trying to do.

After you read about the community of Jean Lafitte, be sure you read this article about the Leeville community on Bayou Lafourche and the cemeteries that are washing out to sea.  It's heartbreaking.

While there are plenty of problems in Louisiana and we've long been known for our  notorious politicians and various aspects of corruption, (and tell me where, please, will you NOT find that?) this is one issue on which we should all be united.  Whether you believe in global warming or climate change or not, whether you believe this land loss is due to greedy oil companies and their negligence, or whether you believe it's just a natural course of events, what we all need to remember is that this is our state: our culture, our way of life.

There are few places more beautiful in my mind than south Louisiana. The swamps, the bayous, the people and their way of life, is unlike anywhere else.  How can we let this go?

There has got to be a way to restore and preserve our coastline and our state.

If you have a good source or recommendation for further reading on this, please share with me in the comments!

Further Reading:
Insects Feast on Louisiana's Coast (NOLA: Feb. 2018)
Buried at Sea: As cemeteries on Louisiana coast wash away, so does history (NOLA: March 2018)
Our Drowning Coast (NOLA: Feb. 2018)
Why the Master Plan will not Protect Louisiana (LSU Law Center: Feb. 2017)

Desperate Democrats

In response to my post yesterday about former La. Governor Buddy Roemer's imminent presidential bid announcement, Sarah commented, "Who's not running for president?"  Well, Paul Ryan isn't....

But she raises a good point.  While the main stream media has already picked the Republican candidate, (we can just bypass that primary nonsense!)  in reality, the field is still settling.  I don't think Roemer is going to be a serious contender, but that's beside the point.  The field isn't set.  Stacy McCain still contends that Palin is getting in which will definitely shake things up.

Yesterday, Legal Insurrection pointed out that the democrats must already be sensing trouble:

Democrats must be in trouble if The Daily Beast is running a headline White Supremacist Stampede, with this opening line:

Add to the growing list of candidates considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 America’s most famous white-power advocate: David Duke.

Ah yes, the David Duke card gets played.

And Professor Glenn Reynolds agrees:

Like the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil, the fact that they’re playing these cards so very early in the election cycle does smack of desperation.

Obama's vulnerability is obvious to everyone except possibly the Narcissist in Chief himself.

Look for more of these political moves to come; I'm taking over/under wagers on how far out from the election the permitorium in the Gulf is lifted.  I'm guessing early next year you'll see a wave of new permits being issued and rigs springing up like dandelions in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Permitorium in the Gulf Persists

In case you missed it, there was a great editorial at NOLA yesterday about the Obama administration's permitorium and the need to open drilling in the Gulf:

The best way to protect consumers against price spikes in the long run is to continue expanding oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. President Obama in May announced his goal to increase domestic oil production. But producers in the Gulf are still complaining that a de facto moratorium imposed after the BP oil spill last year hasn't been fully lifted. 

And for more background on how we got to this point, be sure to read Adam White's piece at The Weekly Standard which explains the attempts in Congress to compel the administration to handle the permit applications that are now just stacking up. 

The official moratorium has been lifted, yes, but drilling permits are not happening.  To date, only one well permit has been approved:

According to the House Oversight Committee’s recent report, the administration’s official moratorium “was replaced by a ‘permitorium’—whereby drilling activity remained at a standstill not by operation of law—but because of inaction on the part of [Interior].” As proof of the “permitorium,” the House report noted that before the Deepwater Horizon spill, Interior had “processed and issued permits to drill in two weeks”; since the moratorium ended last year, only one new well had been approved. In the words of Judge Feldman, “Where there should be a queue” of applications receiving orderly review, “there is instead an untended pile.”

Obama's decision to release oil from the strategic oil reserves was purely a political move.  White's piece makes the case that the current situation is not so dire that such a move needed to be made. 

Obama's poll numbers were/are plummeting and he's in campaign mode (when did he ever get out of it?), so he releases the oil reserves hoping for a bounce.  It didn't work.

If Obama wants a bounce in poll numbers, he needs to open drilling in the Gulf.  End the nonsense.

Obama, Brazil, and Gulf Oil Exploration.

Is Obama just plain trying to ruin America's energy industry?

Apparently Obama would rather buy oil from foreign sources while he tilts at windmills and looks to the future of "green energy." 

Since the BP oil spill last spring, the Obama administration has issued five new deep water permits.  Five.  Bloomberg reports today that Chevron received the fifth permit for exploration in the gulf. 

While Chevron is the fifth company permitted to resume work in the area following the last year’s Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, it’s the first to be allowed to tap a reservoir that has never produced, according to the regulator. 

Thirty-nine shallow permits have been issued to date with 13 still pending.  Why the hold on shallow water permits when the BP spill was deepwater?  The Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement has 8 permits pending for wells in depths greater than 500 feet. 

We have vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, yet Obama would rather buy oil from Brazil or the Middle East.  Victor Davis Hanson calls this a "man made energy crisis," which is something akin to a "man made disaster," I'm afraid.

Consider the logic of the president’s Orwellian declaration: The United States in the last two years has restricted oil exploration of the sort Brazil is now rushing to embrace. We have run up more than $4 trillion in consecutive budget deficits during the Obama administration and are near federal insolvency. Therefore, the United States should be happy to borrow more money to purchase the sort of “new stable sources of energy” from Brazil’s offshore wells that we most certainly will not develop off our own coasts. 

Does this make any sense at all?  It does if what you want to do is ruin the energy industry in America. In Brazil, Obama said:

“With the new oil finds off Brazil, President [Dilma] Rousseff has said that Brazil wants to be a major supplier of new stable sources of energy, and I’ve told her that the United States wants to be a major customer, which would be a win-win for both our countries.”

Just makes you want to slap your head, doesn't it?  It's not exactly a "win-win," buddy.  Why buy oil from Brazil when we have our own?  Of course, Brazil gets to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Is Brazil going to drill for our oil and sell itback to us?  THAT makes a lot of sense.  Earlier this month Petrobras received permission to pull oil out of the Gulf, conveniently gaining approval right before Obama's Fabulous Brazilian Adventure.

It's not just oil.  How could we forget Obama's promise to bankrupt the coal industry?  To his credit, he didn't shut down the coal mining industry after the last mine disaster as he did with the oil industry and the BP spill.  Union pressure, maybe.

Cap and trade?  One shudders to think what that monstrosity would have done to energy prices. 

Hanson makes the case that Obama's vision is to turn America into something European with high speed rail and high gas prices:

At a time of trillion-dollar deficits, the administration is borrowing billions to promote high-speed rail, and is heavily invested in the federally subsidized $42,000 Government Motors Chevy Volt. Apparently the common denominator here is a deductive view that high energy prices will force Americans to emulate European centrally planned and state-run transportation.

That would be the key term - "state run."  State run transportation, state run health care, even massive expansion of entitlement programs all fit into Obama's vision of America.

I've got new for you.  That's not my vision of America AT ALL.  What in the world is wrong with drilling our own oil and supporting the current energy industry in our country rather than bankrupting it?  Why not drill in the gulf and why not open ANWR?  What a naive puppet this man is.  How clueless.

Truly.  Every act he commits reveals pure naivete. 

You want to develop "green energy," fine.  But don't run us out on a limb and then saw it off with your solar powered chain saw.


(Graphic from EOEarth)

A Mystery

What in the world is wrong with this picture? 

Here we are, in America, literally sitting on vast oil reserves in just ANWR and in the Gulf alone and all it takes to make the price of gasoline skyrocket overnight is one crazier-than-a-run-over-dog dictator in Libya shooting his own people and threatening to burn his own oil fields.

Yet the liberals won't let us drill in ANWR and Obama won't let us drill in the Gulf. 

What is wrong with this picture?

An Update on the Obamatorium

I did many posts on the BP/Gulf situation this summer and the Obama imposed moratorium that followed. 

The Wall Street Journal posts an editorial that updates the current situaiton:

Today, 15 of the Gulf's 46 shallow-water rigs are idle, due to a lack of new permits. The industry estimates that, at this rate, by Halloween 70% of shallow-water drillers will be idle. The Administration did not include any of these figures in its analysis. 

The "jobs lost" figures provided by Team Obama are predictably lower than the analysis from most everyone else. Once you idle 70% of the shallow-water rigs, well, that's lots of jobs.

And there's the rub. The real fear is that the Administration is using the oil spill as an excuse to shut down the drilling that the enviro left finds so offensive. The President stacked his oil-spill commission with antidrilling environmentalists, who will be predisposed to recommend that any lifting of the ban be accompanied by a severe regulatory regime. The result would be a moratorium in everything but name. 

Oh ye dirty politics, you.  What was that Mike Spence said?

The president is not our teacher, our tutor, our guide or ruler. He does not command us, we command him. We serve neither him nor his vision. It is not his job or his prerogative to redefine custom, law and beliefs; to appropriate industries; to seize the country, as it were, by the shoulders or by the throat so as to impose by force of theatrical charisma his justice upon 300 million others. It is neither his job nor his prerogative to shift the power of decision away from them, and to him and the acolytes of his choosing.

Indeed.

Be sure to check out the Press-Register's series profiling victims of the oil spill.


So as we celebrate the long-awaiting killing of this particular well, let's also remember that Team Obama's political and arbitrary moratorium is costing the Gulf region some 20,000 jobs and the American oil supply some 30 million barrels in 2011 (NOT purchased from foreign sources).

Rig Explosion Reaffirms Moonbats Love for the Obamatorium

The latest on today's oil rig explosion from NOLA is that up to thirteen rig workers are being examined and treated at a Houma hospital but there is no word at this time about their condition.  However, Governor Jindal visited them this afternoon and according to NOLA:

Jindal said he visited with the workers and was pleased that none was injured. "They didn't have any visible injuries and they're eager to get home as soon as possible,'' the governor said.

Good news!

Left Coast Rebel has the unfolding of events today here (with photos!)

The Houma Courier points out that this rig is in much shallower water that the BP rig which blew earlier this year:

The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay. It's location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after the April rig explosion.

The Times-Picayune has this graphic showing the relation of this rig to the BP rig.

There were seven active wells on this particular platform and they have been shut down.

Via The Dead Pelican also comes this NOLA report of the Coast Guard reporting a sheen in the water emanating from and unknown source:

[Jindal] said the company didn't believe any of them were leaking oil, but the Coast Guard has since reported seeing a mile-long sheen on the water stretching from the accident site, which is 102 statutory miles, or about 80 nautical miles, off the Louisiana coast.

It is unclear at this time where the oil or fuel that's making the sheen is coming from.

There is debate as to whether or not that sheen exists; the AP reports that there is no sheen.

Latest reports are that the fire has been contained "but is still burning."

And of course the rumors are already abounding about the origin of the disaster; so far I've seen where the Obama administration blew it up to reaffirm the need for the moratorium, that it was Bush's fault, that MoveOn.org is responsible...; and I'm not linking to them because perpetuating these silly suggestions isn't really helpful.  I only mention them to remind us all that the loons are still out there.

It remains a fact that the business of oil production is and has always been a dangerous one; the workers all understand that when they sign on, just as say, coal miners, for example, do.  Accidents happen.  Fortunately, in this case. safety training saved the lives of thirteen men and they had the good sense and wherewithal to use that training.

It is true that the Obamatorium is devastating to Louisiana:

[Eric] Smith [Associate Director of Tulane University's Energy Institute] says the impact of the moratorium will worsen in the months ahead. He says drilling rigs cost up to a million dollars a day, so oil companies cannot afford to leave them idle. He says eight rigs that were on their way to the Gulf were diverted to other locations after the ban was imposed, and two others have left since then.  "If you are a company like Murphy, which is one of the rigs that did leave, and you have prospects in Africa as well as here and you see you cannot drill in the Gulf for a couple of years and you are under contract for the rig for five years, you will just move it to Africa and work," he explained.

Recently-published reports show that US government officials have estimated the moratorium could cost around 23,000 US jobs.

This explosion is already causing the "I told you so" people to reaffirm the need for a moratorium on drilling. Via the L.A. Times comes this:

“Today’s news comes as no surprise,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. “Offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is like playing Russian roulette. Its not a matter of if something will go wrong, it’s a matter of when.”

I guess once all those windmills and solar panels spring up all over the country and all those mysterious "green jobs" emerge, we just won't have this kind of problem anymore. Either that or the libs will eventually realize we're a nation that is dependent on oil and we have plenty of our own without having to rely on foreign sources if they'd just let us go for it.

Am I On Strike?

I think every blogger, at some point, becomes demoralized, dejected, disgusted.  No, this is not an "I'm retiring  from blogging" thing at all, but I admit to having backed off a bit in the past few weeks as real life has taken over my world.  I can't string two coherent thoughts together anymore, much less a blog post.  I know things will settle down and return to normal at some point, but man, oh man.  Life has been crazy.  Implosion.

So I'm checking the sites tonight to see what I've missed this week and here's Ed Morrissey's post entitled "Did the Government Cause the Gulf Oil Spill?"  Well, hell. 

As it turns out, maybe, indirectly, yeah...

The generally accepted view of the Deepwater Horizon disaster has focused on the blowout preventer and the non-standard procedures BP conducted just before the explosion and fire.  However, most of the damage and the main source of the spill came from the collapse and sinking of the DH platform rather than the initial explosion.  A new report by the Center for Public Integrity, based on testimony from people on scene and Coast Guard logs, contains evidence that the platform sunk because of a botched response from the Coast Guard, which failed to coordinate firefighting efforts and to get the proper resources to fight the fire...

Well, no wonder Obama shook BP down to foot the bill on this one.

Read the rest of Ed's post for the whole story, as well as this one by Rob Bluey at the Washington Examiner for the full story on that. 

I'm so sick of this administration - from their pushback on Arizona to their own failure to secure the border; to Obama's party, party, party White House while the nation rots, the complete and total destruction of our country and the Constitution...; the way this administration has fought my own Governor at every turn on the oil spill management....I don't have to itemize all of it.  You know, because if you're reading this blog you're sick of it too. 

We try to blog about it, we try to write and tell people, but hell.  Is anybody listening?    According to Rasmussen today, 26% of the nation's voters "strongly approve" of the way Obama is doing his job.  WTF is up with that?  What's wrong with these people?  Did they just end up in the wrong country?  Hell! 

Maybe my subconscious is resting for the fall elections.  Because I am fairly certain that come November, the Democrats, no matter how they've ranted, raved, smeared and played demagogue, they'll know the power of the conservative voter.  Epic.

I'll round-up the week tomorrow.  Maybe next week I'll kick it back into gear.  Right now, I'm just pissed.

Bleh.

A Little News Round Up

Over the past two weeks, as I've been getting my mom in and out of hospitals, I've fallen out of the loop in the political world.  It happens so fast!  You read and try to keep up, but it's difficult to be as thorough as you are when you're posting everyday when you have so much else going on.  So, this morning I'm trying to get caught up on things and have just a few random comments.  Then I'm off to the school for a couple of hours to move my classroom, thereby leaving the rest of my week school-free.

On the WikiLeaks story:  I think the New York Times is despicable.  Sweetness & Light has a great post on this story which sums up pretty much where I am with it.    If you look at Memeorandum, everybody and his brother has already commented on it, of course, and so I don't have much to add.  Weekly Standard and Hot Air both are of the mind that the publication of the documents don't really reveal anything new, and this may be true, but that's almost not even the point.

The point to me is, where does the NYT decide not to publish something with regard to national security?  Would they have published top secret information?  I think we all know the answer to that.  Professor Glenn Reynolds points out that the White House condemns the report, but he says:

"They could be disinformation from people who don’t like the United States — or they could be disinformation from U.S. intelligence agencies. Who knows?"

Exactly.

Elsewhere:

I'm tired of the Shirley Sherrod story.

In the Arizona primary, John McCain has opened a rather large 20-point lead against his opponent, J. D. Hayworth.

And oh dear Lord, can you hardly wait to set your DVR for Obama's appearance on The View?  What a fawning load of saccharine blather that will be.  God help us.  He doesn't have anything else to do that day?  Seriously?

The cleanup in the Gulf continues now that Bonnie has fizzled out.  People are anxious for their communities and beaches to be cleaned up but tensions are high, as reported by this story.  The whole stranger in town scenario has locals tense.  Hell, the entire situation has people tense.  People are out of work because of the moratorium and the spill, money is tight, livelihoods are threatened; yes, I'd say tensions are high down on the coast.

Louisiana lawmakers are banding together to get the moratorium lifted, but they're wasting their time.  Obama hates us.  He doesn't care.

Speaking of the Gulf coast, I'm reminded to note that I tried Tina's shrimp cocktail recipe last night:  delicious!  Absolutely great!  Perfect for a hot summer day!  I cut it in half because I was using it as a side to grilled steaks, but man was it good!

I'm off to the school now for a couple of hours.  Steve and I are slipping out of town to spend the night in Natchitoches one night this week, and we're off to Minden tomorrow to visit Milly Rose and her little dogs.  Expect travelogues this week!

Another Storm is Brewing

Here we go again - clear out the Gulf, pull up the skimmers, another storm is coming.  For safety's sake, BP has suspended work on that oh-so-close relief well:

Concerned that stormy weather might soon force an evacuation in the Gulf of Mexico, BP temporarily suspended work on a relief well considered to be the ultimate solution for plugging the blown-out Macondo well that until last week had been gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP Vice President Kent Wells said.

So far it's just a tropical depression, but that's enough to put a halt to everything. Thad Allen says work could be halted for up two weeks.

As far as environmental concerns, there are signs of hope.

Tom Bianchi, a Texas A&M oceanography professor, has inspected the marshlands around Grand Isle, and CNN reports that he's found signs of encouragement:

Bianchi and researchers from several other universities studied the wetlands off Grand Isle, Louisiana, by boat over the past week, funded by a $114,000 emergency grant from the National Science Foundation. Several days of inspecting the swampy home of mussels, crabs, sea grass and microbial creatures yielded good news for a precious part of the region's food chain, Bianchi said.

You know what we can do to help?  Eat some Gulf shrimp!  Seafood!  It's good and safe to eat, so if you can find it, help out the struggling fishermen and the local economy and eat seafood!  I know I can still get Gulf shrimp around here.

Cross fingers that this new storm stays small then blows away.  We don't need anymore new problems down here!

They Packed the Cajundome

The Cajundome was packed yesterday for a rally against the moratorium.  The Advertiser estimates 11,000 people were there.

WWLTV reports:

Thousands stood in silence as the names of the victims of the Deepwater Horizon explosion appeared on the stadium's big screens. But they were rarely silent after that -- cheering every statement against the moratorium. 

Sometimes it seems we forget that eleven people lost their lives when this all started.

The Advertiser reports:

"This moratorium will turn Louisiana into a state of bankrupt businesses," Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said."It will cripple the economy of a state that has come back after Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike. And we can't afford to be crippled again."

There were workers of all kinds and all walks of life there to protest the loss of their way of life.   Plate technicians, oil rig workers, lawn service guys, McDonald's workers, helicopter operators, insurance agents, you name it.  Every single soul in Louisiana is detrimentally affected by this ban on drilling.

And via Hot Air, here's Bobby Jindal:




I'll say it for the thousandth time:  the moratorium makes no sense.  When an accident occurs in any other industry you haven't seen Washington rush in and shut them down.  Bride of Rove has a post on Obama's "trigger finger" and rush to judgment.  The same scenario applies here.  He didn't think this through before he imposed it....or maybe he did.  Which makes his destruction of the State of Louisiana intentional.

Maybe Jindal's right.  Maybe it IS a war.

Rally For Economic Survival Today

There's a huge rally today at the Cajundome from 11 to 1 p.m. - The Rally for Economic Survival for the purpose of calling attention to the disastrous effects of the moratorium; from their website:

• In one act, the Obama administration has signed the pink slips of tens of thousands of Louisiana and Gulf Coast citizens.
  
• The financial consequences from the moratorium will eventually create an economic ripple effect that will negatively impact every citizen of the United States.
• Consumers will bare the brunt of the federal drilling moratorium paying more everywhere from the pump to the grocery store.

 There will be speakers and presentations; you can stream it here.

There is no question that the moratorium will have, and is having, disastrous effects on the Louisiana economy.  The American Energy Alliance report makes that perfectly clear.  The original moratorium was issued on May 30th.  A federal judge blocked the enforcement of this moratorium on June 22nd, so the Obama administration issued another one on July 12th, this time eliminating the provision of drilling depth from the moratorium.

The AEA report outlines the kind of jobs affected by this move.  It's not just rig workers, obviously.  there are shipbuilders who provide exploration vessels, platforms, etc.; steelworkers, accountants and bankers who provide financial services, grocers who supply staples for the offshore rigs, transportation, refining, retail and hospitality businesses.

The job loss, of course, leads to lost tax revenue to the tune of $98 million in the Gulf states alone.  Because of what Dr. Mason, author of the AEA report, calls a "spill-over" effect, he says "the federal government stands to lose $219 million in tax revenue." 

The rally in the Cajundome today is expected to draw plenty of media coverage and hope are that Washington will hear their plea to lift the moratorium and save Louisiana jobs.  With bad weather moving in once again, and work possibly being shut down in the Gulf, things continue to look grim.  

Why Does Team Obama Hate the Gulf?

I'm headed up to the hospital to check on my mom this morning but while I'm sitting around I'm taking the AEA report of the drilling moratorium with me to read.  I wanted to post on it yesterday but things got sort of crazy yesterday.  Fox 8 has a quick rundown of the devastation of the situation, however; some highlights:

Mason estimates the Gulf Coast region will lose 8,000 jobs and $500 million dollars in wages. 

People working in the oil field industry would be impacted first, but Mason warns within a year, jobs among other professionals would suffer too. 

Smaller or non-existent paychecks also add up to less tax revenues. Mason says the moratorium will decrease tax collections by $98 million along the Gulf Coast. 

Mason's calculations predict the moratorium nationally will kill 12,000 jobs, eliminate $707 million in wages and suck $220 million of tax revenues out of federal coffers. 

The report was prepared by Dr. Joseph R. Mason at LSU working with the American Energy Alliance.  It should keep me busy today.

Meanwhile, while all these rig workers are out of work, our great and benevolent leader who demanded BP set aside funds to the tune of $100 million to pay them anyway, has yet to figure out how that fund will be administered.  It's been six weeks.  There's also that $20 billion fund but workers can't apply for compensation out of that one.  Basically, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, as they say, and it's a big clusterfark.

Now somebody explain to me why Team Obama thinks this is a good idea?  It just looks like punishment to me.  

In the Gulf Today...

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the cap is holding in the Gulf, but I'm scared to death about it, too.  The consequences should there actually be a leak somewhere else are terrible.

Reports today are that seepage "a distance from the busted oil well" has been detected and there is a difference of opinion between BP and Team Obama as to what to do with the whole mess.

As of now, BP wants to keep the well capped while Team Obama's plan, "however, is to eventually pipe oil to the surface, which would ease pressure on the fragile well but would require up to three more days of oil spilling into the Gulf."  Via Fox8News:

Scientists still aren't sure whether the pressure readings mean a leak elsewhere in the well bore, possibly deep down in bedrock, which could make the seabed unstable. 

The two camps differ in their approach to this problem; Fox 8 reports

"I can see why they're pushing for keeping the cap on and shut in until the relief well is in place," said Daniel Keeney, president of a Dallas-based public relations firm. The government wants to eliminate any chance of making matters worse, while BP is loath to lose the momentum it gained the moment it finally halted the leak, Keeney said. "They want to project being on the same team, but they have different end results that benefit each," he said. Oil would have to be released under Allen's plan, which would ease concerns that the capped reservoir might force its way out through another route. Those concerns stem from pressure readings in the cap that have been lower than expected.

The consequences of a bad call here are potentially devastating.   The only thing anybody seems to agree on is that nobody wants more oil spilling into the Gulf.  Their reasons for wanting that, however, vary, but in the end, we can all get to the same place.  If oil starts leaking through the sea floor this will be a much harder problem to solve.

Meanwhile, other oil spill issues continue to arise.  Kenneth Feinberg has aroused anger by reporting that cleanup pay will be deducted from any claims filed by unemployed workers.  These fishermen are out of work because of the disaster, have been using their own boats to help clean up the mess and have been receiving pay for that work. They are not happy about the news that the pay they receive will affect any future claim.

Houma Today has that story:

“It’s a double-edged sword. Yes, you are working, but working with hazardous materials cleaning up their mess. Once they leave there is no telling what’s going to happen. You are working and doing their work for them. But for the fact that they blew the well I wouldn’t have to be doing hazardous work.”

Senator David Vitter is worried that the administration is going to neglect the Gulf coast area.  On Fox News Sunday, Senator Vitter pointed out Obama has not visited the area since June 4 which he sees as a political move to keep the story off the front pages. 

Senator Vitter also commented on the moratorium:

"Chris, it already has been a huge job-killer. If it continues for six months or more, it will kill more jobs than the oil ever would," Vitter said. "I’m really, really concerned about this moratorium issue." He estimated the drilling ban could end up causing jobs losses of 140,000 or more. Vitter said he has sponsored legislation to end the moratorium and has been in talks with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other administration officials on what safety measures offshore operators can put in place now to get up and running again.

There's no question that the moratorium is killing the Louisiana economy; it has been pointed out a thousand times: it's not just rig jobs that are affected.  I'll post more on this later.

Right now the issue is the cap.  The Coast Guard is tentatively allowing it to stay in place and continue monitoring for one more day, but the next step is still unclear.  What would be helpful, however, is for everyone to get on the same page, put their personal agendas aside, and do what's best for the people of the Gulf region.

Michelle Visits the Oil Spill

Is it just me or is this outfit supposed to look like someone spilled oil all over it?

(Photo credit:  Reuters)

Outrage of the Day: Another Moratorium

Senator David Vitter says it best:  Team Obama is "declaring war on Louisiana's economy."

Vitter issued a press release today saying,

After months of indecision and lack of focus, the Obama administration has finally taken my advice and started treating the oil spill response like a war.  Unfortunately, they're declaring war on Louisiana's economy.  Today, nearly three months after the oil spill began, the president's oil spill commission finally held its first meeting.  But commission members have made it clear that they will defer to the Interior Department's own agenda and have no intention of addressing the deepwater drilling moratorium that's killing thousands of jobs in our state."

Now the administration has issued a new moratorium through "November 30 or until such time as Salazar deems that drilling can move forward safely." 

Meanwhile, the exodus has already begun.  Diamond Offshore Drilling is pulling out and moving their rig to Egypt. 

Let's be clear about what Obama is doing.  He doesn't give a damn about the Louisiana marshland or environment.  He doesn't care about our economy down here, either.  He has a political agenda and he means to keep it.  It's not just the people on the rigs that lose jobs.  All the related service industries, restaurants, supply companies, hotels, tourist industries,fishermen, all of it.  Everything.  Gone.  Going.  Over.

The moratorium makes no sense;  you do NOT punish an entire industry for an error in judgment or a mistake by one operator.  That's just stupid.

If he's all of a sudden worried about safety issues, future spills, and the environment, you can do those studies without shutting everything down. 

Given that rationale, I want him to shut down all gun manufacturers the next time someone gets shot, close down all the coal mines next time there's a cave in or accident, next time someone has a car wreck, stop the auto industry until we figure out how to make driving a car "completely safe."  The next airplane crash?  I expect all planes to be grounded.  The next chemical spill on an interstate?  Shut down those 18-wheelers.  The next time lighting strikes through someone's house and fries all their electronics?  Shut down all the home builders until there are lightning rods on every house.

The man is certifiable.  If anyone on the Gulf coast EVER votes for this man again, shame, shame on you.

(More at Memeorandum)

Media Coverage and the Oil Spill

Jim Geraghty is concerned that the oil spill is falling off the front pages and getting pushed to the back burner in the media and he's justified in that concern.  This is what the Obama White House wants to happen.

The president also declared, “make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes. . . . we must make a commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment.” Well, a search of Obama’s speeches on the Washington Post website reveals he has not said “BP”, “gulf” or “spill” since June 30. I realize there’s a national holiday in the past week, but it certainly is hard to believe this is still the top priority if he can go a week without even mentioning it. Back on May 27, he was insisting it was his top priority.

Now that the Department of Homeland Security is set to take over the information website, expect this trend to continue.

The US government is expected to take over control of the central information website on the Gulf oil spill response that has been run jointly by various agencies and BP for the 2 1/2 months since the rig explosion.

The spill is such a top priority for Team Obama, in fact, they're sending .... Michelle .... to come check it out. I'm at a loss to discover what good that will do except interrupt important work being done for more photo ops.

And The Hill also reports that Good Time Joe Biden is also planning a return trip to the Gulf.  Is that so he can do something constructive or so he can actually give Billy Nungesser more than 30 seconds this time?

A survey of Louisiana newspapers and blogs shows that we're still reporting on the crisis whether the mainstream media is or not and whether Obama is worried about it or not.  For example:

An editorial in The Times-Picayune calls for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to expedite the hearing on the moratorium.  They're to hear arguments today but a decision could be months away unless it is expedited.

Houma Today posts an interactive map by the AP of abandoned wells in the Gulf.

The Acadiana Gazette has a story on the hardships faced by the Pointe-au-Chien Indians because of the spill.

The Advocate has a story on the tar balls in Lake Ponchartrain

The Hayride continues its oil spill thread.

Jim Brown at Bayou Buzz wonders "as more states become directly affected by the polluted waters, and the Louisiana political and business leadership continues to call for more drilling, national sympathies are beginning to wane. Is Louisiana pushing the envelope, and trying to have it both ways?"

Whether the mainstream media stays on the story or not, we in Louisiana will.  The Heritage Foundation is staying on it as well.

I suppose the New York Times will get back to it whenever Michelle comes to visit in a couple of weeks.

Jimmy Buffett: It's All George Bush's Fault!

Oh for crying out loud, not Jimmy Buffett, too.  Add him to my list of celebrities who have lowered my opinion of them by opening their mouths and uttering moonbat nonsense.

The BP oil spill is all George Bush's fault.

Buffett, a supporter of President Barack Obama, said the roots of the spill lie with the administration of former President George Bush, which was often criticized for being too cozy with the petroleum industry.

"To me it was more about eight years of bad policy before (Obama) got there that let this happen. It was Dracula running the blood bank in terms of oil and leases," he said. "I think that has more to do with it than how the president reacted to it."

I don't care if he wants to support Barack Obama.  We're a country of diverse political opinions and that's fine.  But to conclude that George Bush is at fault here is crazy.

Obama's own Minerals Management Service has been allowing drilling without permits since 2009.  Got that date?  2009.

Yes, the MMS was probably a sham even during George Bush's tenure, but Obama's been president now for over two years.  That he never cleaned up MMS until a disaster fell in his lap is not George Bush's fault.

Sorry, Jimmy Buffett.

And if Buffett wants to get into the blame game, well, he's just being silly to overlook Obama's culpability here.  Let's review, Mr. Buffett:

Via Gateway Pundit:

** Weeks after the explosion the feds only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignore oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** There are no skimmer boats off the coast of Mississippi.
** The massive A-Boat skimmer won’t be allowed to join the cleanup effort until the Coast Guard and the EPA figure out whether it meets their standards.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The Obama Administration lied about the oil spill cleanup efforts to Louisiana officials.

Now shut up and sing.  Raise some money or something.


(H/T:  Sandy)

Obama Fires Another Shot at Louisiana

Team Obama has, as expected, asked a Louisiana judge to reinstate the deepwater drilling moratorium - that job killing, economy stifling, coastal death sentence that Obama imposed immediately after the BP blowout.

Even though the moratorium was overthrown in court drilling has not resumed pending appeals and that means lots of Louisianians are still out of work and suffering down on the coast.

The New York Times has the story:

In replying Tuesday to Judge Feldman’s order, the Interior Department, joined by the Justice Department, stated that the continued suspension of drilling was required because continued operations without new safety measures threatened irreparable harm to the marine and coastal environment across the gulf. The government also said that the BP oil spill had taxed the resources available to respond to and clean up the mess and that a second blowout would be impossible to address.

That's rich, isn't it?  Now they're worried about "the marine and coastal environment across the gulf"?  Seriously?  When did that happen?   Somewhere between the time they stopped the skimmers and refused permits for rock jetties to protect the islands?  I don't see the federal government all that worried about Louisiana's coastal environment.  Not at all.

And that whole "taxed the resources" thing doesn't fly either.  NOLA reports that there are more than 1,600 skimmers available in the United States, for example, but BP's latest information reports "more than 550" in operation.  How many more than 550?  551?  555?  800?  In addition, foreign assistance has been offered and often refused.  The chart from the State Department we referred to last week has been taken down so it's difficult to tell how many.

The whole strategy by Team Obama has been clearly to shut down deepwater drilling; the moratorium never made one bit of sense.  You don't punish everyone for the infraction of one operator; as I've said before - it's no different that accidents in coal mining (no coals mines were shut down) or the Toyota crisis (nobody shut down all auto manufacturing).  There's just no difference.  The moratorium is driven by a political agenda and for that, it's criminal.  The judge was correct in rejecting it.

Yet Team Obama soldiers on.  Forcing the issue and asking for reinstatement of of the moratorium just keeps everything on hold, keeps more people out of work, puts additional stress on families trying to make a living.  It's not just rig workers that are affected which is something Obama just doesn't get; or if he does, he just doesn't give a damn.

And so we're still idled.

When will it stop?  As I said yesterday, damn the feds and you coastal governors band together and do what needs to be done.  Protect the coast.  File your lawsuits.  Get people back to work.

Update:  Senator David Vitter has issued a statement regarding Obama's continued support of the moratorium:

“There’s no question that Louisiana’s economy would suffer under a moratorium, but the Obama administration keeps pushing it,” said Vitter.  “The decision to appeal really makes no sense, especially when I’ve proposed a reasonable alternative of tougher safety regulations and increased rig inspections.  The administration’s heavy-handed response is simply a slap in the face of every Louisianian.”

Well said.

Previous Gulf Oil Spill Posts:
Day 78:  Let's Bypass the Federal Government
Oily Notes
The Jones Act Red Tape Keeping Skimmers out of the Gulf
C'Mon Obama!  Get Your Hands Dirty!
Day 70:  The Issue of Criminal Negligence
Day 69:  Thad Allen Needs to Go
The Feds Latest Attempt to Kill Louisiana:  Dredging Stopped
Jindal Responds to Moratorium Ruling
Jindal Goes to Court
Protest Rally in Houma While NOLA Calls Moratorium Myopic
Rahm Focuses on Ways to Help the Gulf Region
On the Presidential Image
Corps of Engineers Still Mulling Approval for Jetties
Why Didn't Obama Shut Down the Coal Mines...?
Shocker!  Nothing "Inferior" About Packgen Boom
Bobby Jindal Fighting the War for the Gulf Coast

and much more

Day 78: "Let's bypass the federal government."

The federal government has thrown another stone in Louisiana's path to protect its shores from the encroaching oil from the BP well explosion.

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has rejected the state's plan to build rock dikes in the passes leading into Barataria Bay, an area known for fishing and wildlife.  As expected, Governor Jindal is furious, saying, "“Only a government bureaucrat would say rocks are more harmful to our water than oil.”

The Advocate has the story this morning as well as a report of oil now moving into Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans.

The best quote in The Advocate's piece comes from Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle who said,

“I say, let’s go. If we can come up with the money, let’s bypass the federal government. Let’s protect our people.”

Camardelle needs to come up with $25 million to build the dikes anyway.  BP has already purchased the rocks for $16 million and they're sitting on barges ready to go.

At this point, I think Camardelle is correct.  It appears that the only way Louisiana will be saved will be for state officials to do whatever it takes to save it and quit waiting weeks for Corps approvals, permits, and reports.  Quit waiting for Obama to make a decision because he's already made it, haven't you noticed? 

He's decided to take the path of criminal negligence.

The state of Florida has hired their own skimmers because the feds wouldn't get enough out there.  Senator George Lemieux reports that currently there are 66 skimmers off the coast of Florida, down 15 from his previous count.

The Jones Act still hasn't been waived.  The red tape has been a deterrent to foreign vessels trying to help.

The feds shut down dredging around the Chandeleur Islands citing a need for dredging to be done two miles further away.  Never mind that the state was dredging exactly where the permit allowed.

One of the silliest attempts to shut down local attempts to save the coast was the Coast Guard shutting down the skimmers for 24 hours while they checked for life vests, except they never checked.

If the arbitrary six month moratorium on deepwater drilling wasn't enough to show Obama's intent to decimate our economy in Louisiana, I don't know what is.  The evidence has been clear, more than clear, that this action will ruin the state.  The $20 billion shakedown fund from BP won't change that.

And this news that BP is restricting news from the spill?  They've been doing that since early June.

So, I'm with David Camardelle.  Do what it takes to save the state and worry about the bill and the permits later.  You're not getting any help from Team Obama.