Spill baby spill, slippery politics

Coast Guard Turns Away Journalists Because of "BP Rules"


Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal may want people to understand the severity of the Gulf Coast oil spill, but British Petroleum does not. Jindal talked to journalists Tuesday, describing flying along the coast and watching as oil invades Louisiana's marshes. "This wasn't just sheen, we were seeing heavy oil out there," Jindal said. But when a team of CBS journalists tried to check out a beach for themselves, they were turned away by "a boat of BP contractors with two Coast Guard officers on board." They forced the journos to turn around "under threat of arrest," even though the government hasn't closed the area. "This is BP's rules, not ours," a Coast Guard officer told the crew. According to CBS, "Coast Guard officials said they are looking into the incident."

Looking more and more like Obama's Katrina all the time.......

Katrina was a natural disaster

Quote:

Katrina was a natural disaster

it was not...nature was a known, the us government claimed that New Orleans was protected from nature but due to construction incompetence it was not. The tragedy at New Orleans was man made.

The criticism extends to President Obama, with just 38% saying they approve of his handling of the oil leak and 36% saying they disapprove. About a quarter (26%) offer no opinion. Still, opinion about Obama’s performance is not as negative as opinion about former President George W. Bush’s response to the flooding caused by Katrina. That September, 52% disapproved of Bush’s response to Katrina and 67% said he could have done more. Today, 47% say Obama could have done more to get the government’s response to the oil leak going quickly.

I think your suggestion that Obama will be saddled with this Oil Spill the same way Bush was saddled with Katrina is just wishful thinking on your part. My crystal ball says it won't happen. Sorry.

Your article states where people are putting the blame: Overwhelmingly BP.

President George W. Bush's overall response to Katrina meets with disapproval today -- a dramatic change from the public’s reaction just after the storm hit on August 29th. Last week, in the two days immediately after Katrina made landfall, a majority of Americans said they approved of Bush's response, although more than a third were not sure. Now, only 38 percent approve. A majority disapproves.

Whatever: It's a LOT of oil. It's certainly bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill at this point.

BP has been parsimonious in releasing video until now, in what seems to be an intentional effort to minimize public outrage. Some of us complained repeatedly about the lack of video being made public and, more importantly, the way the U.S., government has let BP call the shots. Now the Senate has finally got its hands on abundant video, though according to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Service in a pointed letter to BP the video has often been stored in low quality DVDs.

There's going to be a lot of talk now about the "cover up" by BP of the true dimension of the spill. See, for example, this statement that just came over the transom:

Statement by Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of National Wildlife Federation:

"It is now clear that BP had hoped to cover up the damage of their oil spill by withholding video evidence of the size of the gushers and preventing independent analysis. In Washington, it's been said that 'it's not the crime, it's the cover-up' - but in this case, it's both the crime and the cover-up that are an outrage.

"The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene and BP cannot be left in charge of assessing the damage or controlling the data from their spill. The public deserves sound science, not sound bites from BP's CEO."
And I don't think NOAA and EPA are going to come out looking too great, either, at this rate. From the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Letter:

While deep-sea research is difficult, it is now commonplace around the world. The industry capabilities pioneered in and off Louisiana are truly revolutionary. Therefore the ill-equipped, ineffective and ill-prepared monitor program undertaken by EPA and NOAA reflect very poorly on those agencies.

“I also just don’t believe that BP or their contractor would have any incentive to skew the data,” he said. “Even if they did, there are too many federal, state and local eyes keeping watch on them.”

Right. This is an example of corporate arrogance.

I have been hearing voices on TV demanding the government take control over the blown out well, which the government claims would be illegal. Even if that happened, what could they do that BP is failing to do? Who knows how to stop it quickly?