Alabama ad uses BP funds for containing spill damage to say beaches not suffering spill damage

[cory777]

Source: Yahoo News

Alabama unveiled a new tourism ad Thursday touting its "gorgeous beaches" and delicious seafood. That's great news for anyone who was worried about the BP oil spill's impact on the Alabama coastline — it looks like the state dodged a bullet.

But there's more here than meets the eye — beginning with BP's funding of the ad. The ad, featuring Alabama chef Lucy Buffett, was financed from a $15 million payment BP made to Alabama last month to help "mitigate the economic impact of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico" and shore up tourism. (It was part of a $70 million

That means, in other words, that BP is making amends to Alabama for spilling all that oil on its beaches by financing advertisements claiming that Alabama's beaches haven't been harmed by all that oil.

On one level, of course, the outlay makes a certain kind of sense: Alabama's tourism industry is indeed harmed by fears about Gulf beach contamination by the spill, so the state isn't acting outside the bounds of the oil giant's fund for mitigating the economic impact of the spill.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2703

[Capn Sunshine]

1. it's a sound plan.

You see

1) tourists flock to the beaches.
2) Tourists step in oil , get it all over themselves
3) Tourists return to their suburban Alabama environs, where oil just blends into the landscape.

4) God Bless Alabama.



(actually, that's a pic from Carpinteria ca. 1968, before the REALLY BIG spill, back when it just leaked these small little slicks.

[defendandprotect]

2. How about we just uninvent the dollar bill -- and go back to trades/seashells?

[Indianademocrat91]

3. Are oil covered seashells

worth more than regular pristine seashells :D ?

[Art_from_Ark]

4. At one time, black wampum shells were worth more than white ones

But then, the "alchemists" among the colonists figured out how to make black shells from white ones, and the premiums on black shells went to nothing.
The same would apply here-- people would just put a bunch of pristine shells in an oil pan when changing their oil, and voila! Instant value enhancement! Until everyone caught on, that is :)

[defendandprotect]

6. Don't think I'd like a necklace of oil covered seashells? How about you?

[trof]

5. I live down here. My assessment:

I live 5 miles from the beaches in Alabama.
The beaches have good days and bad days, depending on winds and currents.

Obviously, there is no oil above the high tide line. If there is oil in the water, it can't fly. It's dependent on winds, current, and tide level changes for 'transportation'.

So in fact there are miles and miles of undespoiled sugar white sand.
When oil does come ashore it's usually in a thin tide line that you can probably step across.

The tar balls on the beaches are coated with sand and you can pick one up without getting any muck on your hand. Of course if you step on one and smush it, it gets on your foot.
Baby wipes will clean it right off.

Tarballs in the water don't stick to you.
I'll leave it to the health experts about what harm can come to you by being in water that contains tar balls.

I don't see anything wrong or suspect about Alabama using BP money to try and mitigate the damage done to tourism by false media and internet reports of "Oil covered beaches".
And I can't think of a better spokesperson than Lulu Buffett.
In addition to running a kick-ass restaurant/bar/marina she's done a lot to promote alternative power (using wind generated electricity at the bar) and encourage more use of local food producers. She has contracted with a nearby rancher to supply all of the grass fed beef used in her famous 'Cheeseburgers in Paradise'.

Oh yeah, the only time I can detect an odor of petroleum is during a major burn at sea when the wind is out of the southwest.