Tag: oil spill

Oil spill update.

So, let us recap: an unexpected leak has dumped highly alarming amounts of crude oil into the water, taxing the resources of local authorities.  Wildlife and wetland areas are already affected, and there’s no sign of swift relief.  The governor of the state primarily involved – a state that frankly cannot afford more bad things happening to it – is screaming for the relevant federal authorities to get out of neutral and actually help, and screaming largely in vain.  And, of course, nobody’s quite sure how much crude has leaked, and how culpable the oil company is in the leak, and whether the same federal authorities that aren’t helping now are responsible for missing the conditions that caused the original leak.

Michigan can’t just seem to catch a break. Continue reading Oil spill update.

So, I asked myself: “How to make the oil spill…”

[UPDATE]: Glenn Reynolds is ever-vigilant.

…worse?”

And I said, “Well, the spill itself could spontaneously achieve self-awareness, coalesce into a globular carbon mass of malice, and hare off to an abyssal lair from whence it could plot dark, inky dreams of conquest.”

Yeah. About that.

For 86 days, oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s damaged well, dumping some 200 million gallons of crude into sensitive ecosystems. BP and the federal government have amassed an army to clean the oil up, but there’s one problem — they’re having trouble finding it.”

Via @BillSTL.

Seriously, if it’s really gone that’s great.  But we haven’t gotten any favors so far, so why should the universe start now?

So, how bad was the Obamaspill speech last night?

Well, don’t ask me*: ask Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post.  Yes.  The Huffington Post.

President Barack Obama took to the Oval Office to address a nation worried to death over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a location used so much more often by Saturday Night Live than by actual presidents that my brain actually released a small dollop of dopamine in anticipation of comedic parody. And then, over the next seventeen minutes, nothing much happened to challenge my brain’s autonomic preconceptions.

There’s some really good quotes in there; heck, even the obligatory swipe at the Republicans was tolerable, if rather rough language (hey, Jason, at least my side has a plan). More seriously, the White House should now really start acting like this crisis is going to hurt them long-term, because from what I can tell the Democratic base is fuming at how badly the Obama administration is handling the spill.  Olbermann & Matthews were particularly entertainingly distraught, disbelieving, and distressed over the whole thing – and if they’re having moments of clarity, so are a lot more progressive activists.

Unfortunately for the White House, their standard solution problems like this is to have Obama give a speech.

Moe Lane

PS: Hopefully, somebody will give this Andrew Malcolm reaction the attention it deserves.  Andrew does some really good blogging work for the LA Times, which is another way of saying that he’s a pilgrim in an unholy land. Continue reading So, how bad was the Obamaspill speech last night?

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R, LA) gives up on waiting for BP/WH.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) Given that the leak hasn’t been plugged yet, and given that the Gov. Jindal has a state to look after, this isn’t surprising.

Eight weeks into the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of the Mexico, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has told the National Guard that there’s no time left to wait for BP, so they’re taking matters into their own hands.

In Fort Jackson, La., Jindal has ordered the Guard to start building barrier walls right in the middle of the ocean. The barriers, built nine miles off shore, are intended to keep the oil from reaching the coast by filling the gaps between barrier islands.

Continue reading Gov. Bobby Jindal (R, LA) gives up on waiting for BP/WH.

Never let an oil leak go to waste?

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Glenn Reynolds reminds me of this paragraph by Allahpundit in response to the news that the President has been aware of the true magnitude of the BP spill all along:

The real disgrace here is why, if he really did know right away that this was the oil equivalent of an asteroid strike, he didn’t scramble some sort of all-hands-on-deck emergency operation to protect the coastline. Remember, Jindal reportedly requested five million feet of hard boom back on May 2, long after Obama (according to Wolffe) knew about the magnitude of the disaster. By May 24, not even 800,000 feet had arrived. What happened?

So, seeing as it’s been clear all along to the White House that we had an ecological disaster on our hands: why did the President not act in a timely fashion to try to keep the oil off of the beaches in the five Gulf of Mexico states?

State Governor Party Election Year? Note
Alabama Bob Riley Republican Yes Open race
Florida Charlie Crist Independent Yes Former GOP
Louisiana Bobby Jindal Republican No GOP leader
Mississippi Haley Barbour Republican No RGA head
Texas Rick Perry Republican Yes Re-election

Gee, I don’t have the slightest idea.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.