If British Petroleum were an enemy on a mission to despoil
our coastal waters, they are executing a perfect war plan.


BP has dodged regulations which could have prevented this crisis, yet ironically
has imposed its own regulations that hobble relief efforts at every level. BP is clearly
calling the shots, as the Coast Guard defers to their lead and the federal government
struggles to establish any effective command and control.

These are the experiences and reflections of one person who came to help this embattled area and was turned away...




Friday, June 11, 2010

Our coast is being invaded...

James Carville spoke with Anderson Cooper - "we are being invaded!".  He essentially asserted that we need to get on a war footing.  How true - it is a war, although we have designated as our defender the very company whose negligence caused this crisis.  The feds have put our national interests - the fragile ecosystem that graces our southern coast - in the care of a corporation that has shown a significant lapse of safety, a criminal negligence, an incredible compulsion to lie, and a dearth of competence in any attempts at mitigating the crisis.  It appears that almost nothing this company has told us has been true.  The evening that I watched the Cooper-Carville interview (live on the Mississippi River levy in New Orleans), they were discussing why the high-resolution video of the oil gushing from the cut pipe was not released until days later.  The argument given by BP was that it took time to burn the video to DVD and transport it off the ship.   It is just another example of how outrageous the misinformation is from BP - pumped out with as much fury and as little inhibition as the oil that flows from their broken pipe.

FACT: NEW ESTIMATES PUT THE FLOW AT UP TO 40,000 + BARRELS A DAY

My attempts to volunteer my veterinary services continues.  I am also very good with computer technology.  Seeing that it took so long time for BP to make that DVD, I wonder if I could volunteer my services as a multimedia producer for them.  I could get any video released for them in minutes - no need for DVDs or personal couriers.  I could even set it to music, such as the Looney Tunes theme.  Perhaps I could make it run backwards, and BP could explain that the oil is all being sucked back into the well.

It is hard not to be emotional about this - especially down here.  I went to a small neighborhood restaurant on Wednesday - a little eatery called Aunt Leni's.  We sat at a table by the window with a view of a porch swing at the old house across the street, gently rock in the breeze.  Next to us was the owner, shucking oysters.  Fully into the start of oyster season here, watching this man made me realize that this may be the last time I see such a familiar tradition for a long time.  He told me that the oysters were harvested from bed #4.  The oyster beds are numbered from #1 at Lake Borne (between New Orleans and Biloxi, MS), and increase in number as one travels west.  Bed 4 is quite close to Lake Borne, but that fishing area is expected to close soon.

The birds continue to come in to the Clean Gulf Associates Mobile Wildlife Rehabilitation Station in Ft. Jackson.  The last count was 30 more as of yesterday.  An AP article published in the New Orleans Times Picayune stated there were many volunteers but not enough work to do.  There are thousands of oiled animals, hundreds of which have been taken to rehabilitation.  Berms are being built, beaches and marshes being inundated with thick petroleum that has gushed out up to ten Exxon Valdez's so far.  Local state and parish officials are crying out for more skimmers.  Whoever asserts that there is not enough work to do has restored my belief in extra-terrestrial life, for they must surely be on another planet.