NOLA Notes

Here we are at Day 40. It’s hard to even find new words to describe the utter frustration and disbelief of us down in the Gulf area, and hopefully throughout the United States, and maybe the world.

Obama flew down yesterday. It was anti-climactic to say the least. I am never sure what people expect from these presidential visits. He can’t DO anything but look sullen and speak about how he’ll stick with us and make us whole. And we know it’s just PR, whether true or not. Stay in D.C. and ACT for us. What do you need to see firsthand? I haven’t seen a tarball with my own eyes and I can guarantee the pics I have seen tell all we need to know. The marshes are in danger; the oil continues to spew; fishermen are not working; tourism is hurting.

But this trip had that special element of BP having the audacity to bus in over 300 workers to clean Grand Isle for the President’s visit. Let Obama see all of BP’s workers busy cleaning. And as soon as Obama was gone, so were 98% of those workers. BP didn’t even care that every major news organization was covering this visit and thus this display. Their response? Oh, that’s the crew we will have from now on, see. But today? Some are there cleaning, but no where near 300. Nice, BP, nice.

And we were supposed to get an update on that top kill yesterday, about when Obama was here. I even suspected THAT was what he was coming down to tell us—that it had worked. But we got nothing.  Well, actually, we got news that when they shut down operations earlier in the process, BP failed to tell reporters for a full 16 hours. Nice, BP, nice.

So today, after another delay for “technical reasons,” BP announced the top kill, along with its junk shot, failed. There was much ado about having the “brightest minds” and this being a “roller coaster”; about how they have other ideas, so fear not! They are on it! The latest plan? Cut off the broken riser and install a new one that will channel the oil to a rig. Hmmm. Pardon my suspicion, but why does this plan seem to benefit BP more than a plan to, I dunno, blow the well up into itself, or cut off the riser and install equipment that can lead to a cap so that the well is left untapped? BP’s plan to get that oil into their rigs and thus converted to money in their pockets in the name of doing all they can to help us sure is as slick as the oil now on the surface of our waters. Nice, BP, nice.

Meanwhile, let us not forget, BP and the Army Corps of Engineers continue to delay on a decision about dredging berms around America’s fragile wetlands. Seems BP just won’t approve the expenditure and the ACE still isn’t sure of the environmental impact of taking that action. Now, maybe had the ACE not effed us with its maintaining of our levees for Katrina, we’d have an iota of faith in them. But faith in ACE we do not have. And doing NOTHING is a guaranteed death of the wetlands. GUARANTEED.  And they seem to have no better idea.  So ACE telling us they aren’t sure it is a good idea is like Carrottop telling you vegetables may not be good for you. Sure, your name would indicate you know something about which you speak, but in reality, it is just a name that has no record to support your opinion. (No offense, Carrottop–you probably know more about vegetables than the Corps know about berms.) And BP not wanting to fund this dredging on the front end of a catastrophe? You know what I’m gonna say: Nice, BP, nice.

Here’s my problem. I am wise to BP’s shenannigans. I’ve said it earlier and nothing I’ve seen has even suggested I am possibly wrong. BP wants to pay later when it’s all said and done than now. Why? For a variety of reasons:

1. Why pay today what you can pay tomorrow if no interest is accruing?
2. If they pay for dredging in Plaquemines Parish, Gawd forbid.  Then Jefferson Parish, St. Bernard Parish and other coastal parishes will want it too.  Then so will Mississippi counties, then Alabama counties and Florida ones too.  Heck, that’s expensive.  Let’s say no to all and not start a precedent.  After all, maybe not all will get oil, and if we dredge and no oil, that was a waste of money.  And if we don’t dredge and there IS oil, we’ll pay those areas later.
3. The longer BP can distance itself from the spill to the damage, the less it looks at fault.  I mean, if a hurricane comes through, you can be sure they are going to scream “intervening factor!” or “Act of God!” We aren’t responsible for ALL the damage! I mean, how do you even know all that damage came from OUR oil? There are other naturally occurring spills! PROVE this is ours!  This is the reason I also think they are all over using dispersants that are keeping this off the surface of the water and underwater.  Looks are everything in this media age.  So HIDE IT.
4. Even if down the line they pay the areas damaged, they’ve already worked on calculations of what that will cost.  Trust me.  In tort cases, a dead person is worth less than one that was seriously disabled and will need medical attention for the rest of his life.  There’s resources out there that can tell you what a lost arm or leg, or both, or brain injury or spinal injury or WHATEVER is worth within whatever jurisdiction you are interested in.  Helps attorneys know what to offer in settlement negotiations.  Similarly, BP KNOWS that, really, there’s no case history for paying for lost marshes and wetlands.  Sure, there’s Valdez–but that was icy and not the same matter of American significance (not that I am in anyway downplaying Valdez or suggesting AK didn’t lose a national treasure).  My point is simple: BP paying NOW to take all kinds of actions to avoid the marshes getting ruined isn’t worth it to them.  Like people, dead marshes will cost the plaintiff less than damaged marshes.  And any attempts they take now to save those marshes, what if they work to some degree? That could only lead to more money later to keep them on life support for DECADES until they come back as they were 41 days ago. If ever.  Whereas dead is dead.  Settle on a value, pay once and walk away.  Later, after a lot of the anger has become a part of our lives and isn’t the open wound it is now.

Nice, BP, nice.

But maybe they got this top kill all wrong.  Maybe it wasn’t the top of the BOP that was supposed to be killed.  Maybe it was the top of the BP executives.  And my hope? That Obama does his own Top Kill Plan and ousts from further efforts in this spill/clean up those very BP executives we’ve all listened to lie for FORTY FRIGGING DAYS.  Let Obama form an independent engineering think tank of the “brightest minds” without the taint of BP’s overwhelming, and growing, conflict of interest.  And finally focus attention of doing the right thing for the Gulf and not BP.