Louisiana and Scientists Spar Over How to Block Oil’s Approach

[TomCADem]

Source: NY Times

With oil hitting Barataria Bay, a vast estuary in southeast Louisiana that boasts one of the most productive fisheries in the country, local parish officials hatched a plan in May to save the fragile ecosystem: they would build rock dikes across several major tidal inlets between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico to block and then capture the oil.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana supported the plan, and BP agreed to pay for the project, estimated to cost $30 million. By early June, about 100,000 tons of rock began being loaded onto barges on the Mississippi River for transport to the coast.

* * *
The scientists insist the rock plan was misguided.

“There was very strong scientific backing for not doing this,” said Denise Reed, a wetlands specialist and director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences in New Orleans. “This could really devastate our barrier shoreline, our first line of defense.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/science/earth/07rocks.html?hpw

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Who are you going to trust? Scientists or oil industry shill Bobby Jindal? Why Bobby Jindal, of course!

This is a great story in the NY Times (that is buried in the Science page, not front page) that illustrates how the media quickly buys into what ever snake oil Republicans offers as science while ignoring the input of actual scientists. It happened with Global Warming where e-mail-gate was used to question the factual existence of climate change. Now, the media is buying into Bobby Jindal's posturing as a man of action in order to cover-up his long history as a shill for the oil industry.

Sadly, many people are buying into the media's narrative of Bobby Jindal fighting the bureaucracy while ignoring groups like the Audubon Society who have question Jindal's "solutions" from the very beginning.

Don't believe me? Look up the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006, which deregulated deep ocean drilling, which lead to the BP oil disaster. Who sponsored it? That's right, then congressman Bobby Jindal. Can you find a singe mainstream media story mentioning this fact? Nope. It just does not fit the corporate media narrative.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Its easy to criticize a possible solution

without suggesting a viable alternative. Its the simple difference between being destructive as opposed to constructive.

[Downwinder]

3. If I say that, "The car on blocks that you are crawling under is going

to fall on you."

Is it incumbent on me to tell you a better way to block it up? Or is it sufficient to show that the blocks are unstable?

[TomCADem]

6. Not Sure I Agree When The Cure Could Make The Disease Worse

For example, there was a lot of hype about nuking the well. Now, should we refrain from criticizing this proposal just because we don't have an easy alternative to killing the well? Likewise, these massive efforts at terraforming the gulf with minimal environmental review are often one sided debates with Jindal simply complaining about red tape without responding to the substantive criticisms offered by environmental experts, and groups like the Audubon Society. Finally, Jindal has a huge conflict because he was one of the biggest advocates of Deep Ocean drilling when he was in Congress, so he needs to posture as a man of action even if that action could make the situation worse.

The fact of the matter is that Louisiana State agencies share responsibility for developing oil spill contingency plans, but they also turned out to be woefully unprepared, particularly since Jindal is such a fierce advocate of letting States decide environmental issues. Heck, in the version of the DOER Act that Jindal sponsored, neither the federal government nor the neighboring states would have any say on the approval of offshore oil drilling.

[jpak]

2. K&R - Jindal is an asshole and worse than the spill

yup

[SkyDaddy7]

4. Hardly anyone listens to scientist in America...

Many see science as a direct threat to their Christian beliefs! So when it comes to other important issues they listen to the "authoritative voices" coming from the Right! They only embrace science when their lives are on the line and they need the help of modern medical science!

Then you have other factions who push science aside and listen to playboy models like when it comes to vaccines. Or bypass western medicine for homeopathy or magic crystals...It is sad to see in the 21st Century.

America use to embrace science and scientist use to be the huge stars in public life but all that has faded...The sad & ironic thing is trust in science has faded due to how comfortable science has made our lives. That won't last much longer as the religious right thinks we need to get closer to god and they intend on changing public policy to reflect that idea! Scary Stuff!

Oh well, the next 2 years will tell a lot on where America is headed...I fear it is for some very dark times.

[Downwinder]

5. "When all else fails, RTFM"; syndrome.