June 06, 2010

GULF OIL SPILL HITS BEACHES, MARSHES

There is an old conundrum about a man’s reaction watching his mother-in-law drive his new car off a cliff.

The broken oil well of BP Company -- south of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico -- certainly is no laughing matter.  It illustrates the hazards of drilling holes in the seabed near big cities.

Hard hit are popular beaches for vacationers -- and marshes for wild life -- in southern Louisiana and Alabama.

Millions of dollars are gone for fishermen, and their customers  -- for prize shrimp and fish.  And for vacationers on beautiful, sandy, beaches.

COAST GUARD

U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said the “right progress” was being made with capping the broken oil well.  About 10,000 barrels daily are captured for a tanker ship brought in. However, up to 25,000 barrels a day are escaping freely into the gulf.

Allen told “Fox News Sunday” that the final fix to the leak would be a “relief-well” in August.  A second one is being drilled in case the latter doesn’t work.

IN THE FALL

On CBS “Face The Nation” – Allen said the recovery will stretch “well into the Fall – and even after that, oil will be out there for months to come.”

He declared on “Fox News” that:

“We need to be on task and get this thing done.  It is directly impacting 140 miles of coastline – no longer a monolithic spill, but it has broken up into smaller spills headed for shore lines.

“When it comes ashore, nothing good happens.  However, BP is taking every step possible in its efforts at the bottom of the ocean, but needed to work on the retail side” – clean up efforts and dealing with the public.”

Admiral Allen, on “ABC Network” said: “We can’t wait for it to get ashore.  We’ve got to skim it farther out.  When Mr. Hayward is asked for something, he gives it.”

CLAIMS HONORED

BP chief executive officer Tony Hayward declared that “all legitimate claims” would be honored.

Allen stated on CNN’s “State Of The Union” that Congress has been asked to move money from the more than $1 billion liability trust fund (established after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound) into an emergency response fund.

“Then, the Coast and Environmental Protection Authority can start spending it. BP would have to pay it back into the fund.”

INSIDIOUS ENEMY

Allen said the oil well spill “Is an insidious enemy that is attacking all our shores.  It’s holding the Gulf hostage.”

Two Gulf governors on Sunday praised Allen’s role in taking charge and initiating clean-up measures.

Florida Gov.  Charlie Crist said on CNN,

“Whenever there is an ask, we have gotten what we need.  The governor said that after tar balls washed up on Pensacola beaches, efforts began immediately to keep the oil out of sensitive marshes and estuaries.

“One of the things we are trying to preclude -- with 250,000 feet of boom already established throughout the Panhandle – is to be able to close some of the bays off.  Some of the estuaries are very sensitive.

“People don’t like to hear this, but the beaches are some of the best boom that can be available.  That comes from our secretary of environmental protection Mike Sole.  It is easier to clean up off the beaches – as were able to this weekend at Pensacola.”

PILING ON

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said on “Fox News” -- “We think the world of Admiral Allen.”  However, he said the situation didn’t warrant “Republicans piling up on the administration.”

Instead, Barbour referred to a famous Napoleon retort:  "Never interfere with your enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself!"

A lie is two miles down the road before truth gets its boots on.

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

-- Benjamin Franklin

Failure is never fatal, and success never final.

The other line moves faster.

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist