Raging governor, cheery mayor: news from NO
I have been curious about how the citizens of New Orleans are assessing the BP oil spill and its aftermath. I remembered Ann Olivier once saying that she lived there, so I asked her what was going on. Her reply:
Yes, I’m a native New Orleanian, still here in spite of all.
The only impact on my immediate neighborhood so far is that there are no oysters for sale. If the unavailability of seafood continues for long it could impact tourism badly. People come here mainly to eat.
The Churches, including New Orleans Catholic Charities, are very active on the coast, and the word from them is that people are suffering both physical and mental problems, due in large part to the stress of all the uncertainty, both short-term and long-term. The ecologists don’t know how long it will take for the coast to heal, and they don’t know when drilling will start again. South Louisianians have always been sensitive to ecological threats (we’re big on both hunting and fishing), and we’re also aware that the edges of the state are being washed away rapidly — two football fields per hour these days, or so I just read. And, of course, we never know when another great hurricane will hit. So the politicians have to deal with a great deal of anger, anxiety and depression.
But the Tea Partiers haven’t seemed to notice. I don’t think Sarah Palin has visited. Of course, Republicans and Tea Partiers are in a bind over the situation — they’re anti-government but scream bloody murder when big government doesn’t solve their problems.
Bobby Jindal seems to have lived in a rage since the spill happened. But who can blame him? The local leaders, Republican and Democrat, all complain that (as with Katrina) they can’t get things done because Washington takes so damn long to make decisions, and some of their decisions are bad. The angriest local seems to be Billy Nungesser (the big fat one). When I was young and there were only about 6 Republicans in the whole state (ah, those were the days) his father was the head of the LA Republican Party. I don’t doubt he’ll be involved in stirring up the troops next election.
I must say that even some of our Republicans have responded somewhat to our ecological problems (the locals are very big on hunting and fishing), and for years the State has been working seriously on restoring the marshlands. That’s another reason the spill really hurts. All those efforts for naught. However, as the world knows, there’s also the oil industry jobs to consider. I even feel a bit sorry for Bobby Jindal — he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t clamp down on big oil. Well, maybe he’ll learn just how absolutely ruthless capitalists can be, and that should be a plus. His anger should improve his image with the Tea Partiers, if he cares.
New Orleans has a new mayor, Mitch Landrieu. He seems capable. What I really like about him is he’s an optimist in spite of all and seems to have a good bit of imagination. But Orleans parish hasn’t been directly hit by the spill, so he’s not one of the big players.
With all of those sub-contractors and BP suing each other over who is responsible for what, a lot of lawyers will make mountains of money, but that might not impact local lawyers, though I’d imagine the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will be largely where the legal action takes place, plus the local Justice Dept. officials will probably be involved. We have an able Republican federal attorney — Jim Letten, I think his name is. Obama even asked him to stay! So maybe some justice will be done. But I don’t really know whether the spill (40 miles from shore) is in State or in federal waters. I don’t know where the boundary is. LA has long claimed our boundaries go out 200 miles (Spanish law?), but I don’t know if that has ever been settled legally. It could make a difference where the suits are tried—I’m not sure BP would get a thoroughly fair hearing in our local courts :-)
Glad to get news of the critters around your house, even if the last one was a bear. The only threatening thing around here is a fake alligator. Somebody carved it out of a big log and put it in the bayou near here, but it looks real. Seems we really do need nature, even if it threatens :-)
Ann O.
on July 27th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
What a great report! But what a sad topic.
I have been fairly impressed with Jindal. He’s down there focusing media attention on what matters, people’s lives. But the Kingfisher could have kicked some fannies toot sweet!
My cousin, an oceanographer, works for NOAA. He has been sent down to the Gulf at least twice on monitoring tours. He says, “It’s like putting on a respirator and visiting hell.” Bottom line is that whatever isn’t scooped or burned off the water is going to affect marshland and shores.
on July 27th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
My impression of Jindal (only from the Newshour) is that he’s running around being mad, but that he has no real plan to resolve what are obviously multiple and complex issues surrounding the spill and the pay-out from the spill. Presumably he is no expert on all of these issues–who is?–but he does give the impression of someone who thinks, “say anything, try anything,” let’s see what sticks. The political culture of LA is infinitely interesting, but sometimes I wonder if it is over its head in dealing with this situation.
on July 28th, 2010 at 1:19 am
I agree about Jindal. But I partly blame his Republican anti-regulatory stance. Unfortunately, the situation is quite analogous to the economic meltdown. It could have been prevented if there had been sufficient regulation. As I’ve mentioned before, I worked for an oil exploration company, and at the upper levels you don’t find many much smarter people. This didn’t happen because of stupidity, it happened because of BP greed. But like the quants and their investment banker bosses, oilmen are people willing to take risks, and Heyward apparently was willing to take too many gigantic ones. He cut back personnel while claiming to improve BP’s miserable long-term safety record. He and his Board of Directors were pretty dumb after all.
We really can’t expect the politicians to make informed after-the-fact professional decisions. What they are doing now is experimenting by necessity based on the best guesses of the engineers, ecologists and meteorologists, all under the threat of hurricanes. I actually feel sorry for them.
I mainly blame Dubya and the federal regulatory agency responsible for licensing and inspecting the rigs. Bush, an oilman himself, just didn’t believe in regulation and we’re all paying for it.
When are we all going to learn that we can’t ignore mother nature?
on July 28th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
[L]ike the quants and their investment banker bosses, oilmen are people willing to take risks
With other people’s money.
on July 28th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
I understand that the folks involved in skimming operations are having difficulties finding oil to skim.
on July 28th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Bob S. –
Indeed. As I understood some interviews with various scientists on the TV news this evening, they are arguing about just what has happened to the oil — at the moment they can’t find most of it! Some say that much of it has been swiftly consumed by such organisms as plankton (?). Others speculate that it has been captured by the detergents and has now sunk to the bottom of the Gulf. Others say that the great “plumes” of oil were dispersed by the recent storm that went across that area of the Gulf. One scientist was very hopeful that the problem will be speedily solved by mother nature. The others weren’t so sanguine.
The definite bad news is that some of it has settled into the marsh grasses and might remain dormant there for a long, long time thus inhibiting the healing of the marshes as breeding grounds. Also it was pointed out that parts of oil per billion affected the spawning ability of salmon after the Valdez spill, which might bode ill for the Gulf species.
on July 29th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Ann:
I have heard reports (not yet verified) that the type of oil spilled in the gulf is “light crude”, which supposedly is more amenable to microbial and other ocean purifying mechanisms, and that this may explain the absence of oil. I had always thought that oil was oil. Who knew?
on July 29th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Oil is not all alike. I used to have an oil company client, and there is everything from light “sweet” crude (SA and Kuwait) to practically tar (Alaska North Slope), and everything in between. The refinement process, what the oil can be used for, etc. all depend on the grade of the oil when it comes out of the ground. The lighter, generally, the more valuable because it can be used in a greater variety of ways and requires less refining to become usable. In some ways, this disaster reflects something I noticed when I worked with this company: oil people are so smart and their technical mastery of the business is so awesome they think there is no technical challenge they can’t overcome. They are also natural risk takers. Actually, they have a lot in common with Wall Street, but all things being equal, at least they produce something tangible to show for their bravado.
on July 29th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Bob Schwartz –
Oil inedible? Ah, butter, olive oil, and on and on :-) I hear that one problem is that the microbes will gobble up (or did gobble up) the oil so fast it would cause a bloom of microbes/tiny creatures which would lessen the available amount of oxygen in the water which, if lessened enough, could kill the fish.
Complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity . . .
on July 29th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
P. S. Yes, there are different grades of fuel oil. Distillate, as I remember is the purist kind to be found, but then its downhill to light crude to heavy crude. The latter includes impurities such as sulphur, which needs to be refined. This is the basis of one of the big economic issues — how to protect the environment around the refineries from the impurities released by refining. In Louisiana this is a dreadful problem. There are refineries up and down the Mississippi from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, and it’s called “cancer alley”. Some say the refineries are not to blame, but tell that to the dead.
on July 29th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Bob, if you look closely at those little non-dairy creamers that are used in cheaper eateries, you will often find a little symbol followed by the phrase “another edible petroleum product.” I served many of these back in the day as a waitress, though I must say I kind of stopped ingesting them after I read the fine print.
on July 31st, 2010 at 9:15 am
Now Michigan’s got it’s very own oil spill in the K’zoo river. Everyone’s hopeful this won’t get into Lake Michigan, but Mayor Daley of Chicago, in the spirit of Daleyism, has taken the opportunity to argue that the oil is worse than carp.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-daley-lake-michigan-oil-spill-20100729,0,4745109.story
on July 31st, 2010 at 10:09 am
MI: It certainly looks worse on the ground than the Gulf spill. I suppose that’s because it has no where to go except on the ground and river. I noticed that the owner (Canadian housed in TX) was cited for faulty pipe lines not long ago.