Gulf Officials Demand Local Leadership, Spill Emotions Like Oil

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

Local officials met with President Barack Obama’s special BP-Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission in New Orleans Tuesday to deliver a strong message to Washington from Gulf Coast citizens.  

“The response needs to be driven locally,” said A.J. Holloway, Mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Charlotte Randolph, President of Lafourche Parish, LA said that local residents can serve as guides to cleanup crews struggling to keep up with the spewing well.

“In a war, there are two things that happen. Number one, you find the people in that particular area who can speak the language, and number two, you find the people who know the terrain,” Randolph said. “It’s our territory, we know it. Let us advise you all the way in how to attack this.”

Local leaders compared the administration’s handling of the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon gusher to the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, during which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has since become somewhat of a dirty word on the Coast, was harshly criticized for having worked remotely and inefficiently.

“We’ve been through hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, recessions, depressions and we survived it all,” Mayor Holloway said. “What we have trouble dealing with, is something that will not end. It’s a new oil spill every day, every single day.”

Mayor of Grand Isle, La. David Camardelle said that locals are standing strong and lending helping hands when needed, but is still uncertain as to what the future holds for the Gulf.

“We’re not gonna give up, but I can tell you one thing, by taking everything away from us, from the waters, I don’t know what the hell’s gonna happen to us,” said Camardelle.

Use Of Dispersants In Gulf Questioned By Presidential Commission

By Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

The President’s Commission on the BP-Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling raised questions on the use of chemical dispersants in managing the leak in a meeting in New Orleans, Tuesday.

Mathy Stanislaus, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response for the Environmental Protection Agency, cautioned that, “despite dispersants being a tool … [dispersants] must be the tool of last resort.” Stanislaus continued that the federal government has repeatedly advised that chemical dispersants must only be used in the event that containment booms and burns are insufficient.

Stanislaus revealed that the EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard raised concern over BP’s “skyrocketing” use of surface dispersants as far back as May,  requiring that BP cut back on dispersant use by 75%.  According to Stanislaus, BP has reined in their application of the chemicals by 69%.

The official did not comment, however, on the safety of controlled burn methods, which have raised concerns by many in the general population due to possible air polluting effects, which may reintroduce toxic chemicals into the water column by natural climatic processes.

New Moratorium Backed By Bureau Of Ocean Energy Management

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

One day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar revealed a revised moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, formerly known as the Minerals Management Service, Michael Bromwich met with President Obama’s special BP-Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission in New Orleans to express his approval of Washington’s policies.

Bromwich contended that the decision to reinstate the ban was based on “extensive” information, and is focused on enhancing drilling safety and blowout containment capability, and developing better disaster response strategies.

Salazar’s appointed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director did concede that the moratorium was, “roughly congruent with the original moratorium,” but argued that this most recent ban is concerned with specific rig technologies, and not just the depth of the well.

“So long as the spill is out there, has not been contained, and that the oil spill response capabilities are all being consumed by the current spill, the Secretary concluded that it is simply too risky to allow deep water drilling to continue,” Bromwich said.

Faith Organizations Saddened By Gulf Coast Tour

By Robert Hune-Kalter - Talk Radio News Service

Members from many faith-based organizations toured the Gulf Coast coast Wednesday and told reporters they are concerned with how Gulf Coast citizens are handling the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“We are seeing a significant increase in the issues, the mental health issues, the depression, people are tending to fall apart now, it’s really ramping up, the loss of composure, particularly for people who have been self-reliant for most of their lives,” said Patty Whitney of Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing.

The faith-based organizations expressed growing concern that after BP caps the spewing well in the Gulf of Mexico, Americans will continue with their lives and forget about the residents of the Gulf who will be affected for decades.

“It is said that America has an eight day memory.  Something happens and we get all involved in [it], and in eight to ten days, it passes over,”  said Rev. Gerald Durley. “I think we have a moral and a spiritual obligation across faith to keep this at the forefront of the American conscience.”

Rev. Canon Sally Bingham said her most moving experience was seeing the damage being done to America’s Gulf Coastline.

“I think unnecessary risk was taken with nature, and now we’re faced with the worst case scenario,” Bingham said. “Human lives have been lost, creatures destroyed, and some habitats will never recover.”

Media Restrictions Along Gulf Coast Indicative Of National Press Issues, Free Press Advocate Says

By Brandon Kosters - Talk Radio News Service

Clothilde Le Coz, the Washington Director of Reporters Without Borders, told Talk Radio News that it’s problematic that the Coast Guard has imposed rules that limit press access to Deepwater Horizon response operations, but that this “kind of decision happens in a broad context for the media” often, indicating that “the U.S. [is] not that transparent.”

Le Coz said that photographers are “the ones who are the most targeted by [this] kind of restriction,” and cited the example of White house photographers, who she said “have been boycotting certain meetings because they have faced too much restrictions on their work.”

“It’s another attempt to constrain the reporters on a certain level of information.”

The rules imposed by the Coast Guard prohibit anyone from coming with 65 feet of booms and response operations. Violators could be fined $40,000 and charged with a felony. Reporters and photographers must get permission from the Coast Guard to gain access to restricted areas.

The Coast Guard claims that it is trying to protect the safety of response workers, but many journalists believe that this is a move to limit press coverage of the disaster.