Dear Friends -
Earlier this week, I was about three miles off the coast of Grand Isle and saw firsthand a reportedly 12-mile oil slick aiming towards our fragile wetlands. We certainly saw lots of oil, but as Fox News reported we didn’t see one boat or skimmer on the water trying to capture or contain the massive slick that has now started to hit our shores. Meanwhile, that same day we stood with coastal leaders who have been waiting for weeks for federal officials to approve the use of rocks to help narrow passes and block oil from coming into our wetlands around Grand Isle. We called on the feds to immediately approve the project so work can begin to stop more heavy oil from hitting Louisiana’s coast.
No skimmers and approval for a containment project stuck in red tape are just the latest examples of a lack of urgency from the federal government. This is a battle to defend our Louisiana way of life and we need the federal government to get in this war to win it. Vice President Biden was in town yesterday, and as I told FOX 8 in New Orleans, I shared three main concerns with him. First, the feds need to cut through the red tape so projects and resources can be quickly approved to fight the oil off our coast before it enters our fragile wetlands. Second, we need more boom and more skimmers to prevent the oil from entering our delicate wetlands. Third, the consequences of the drilling moratorium are real and devastating.
First, it was our dredging project which took the federal government weeks to approve. Then, after we finally started building the sand-berms, they shut it down and left our coast vulnerable to oil. As I mentioned earlier, local officials are awaiting a response from the feds to place rocks in western Barataria Bay passes. Our coastal leaders have a plan to narrow the passes by up to 70 percent with rocks, rigid pipe boom or other measures, and then place barges with vacuum trucks and sorbent operations in the remaining gaps. It’s been weeks now since local officials requested approval and the Grand Isle Mayor and I spoke to the President about this project three weeks ago. The President told us we would get a call within hours. I told the Vice President about this project yesterday, but it’s ridiculous that we’re still fighting red tape when oil continues to rush towards our coast. As the Thibodaux Daily Comet reported, the feds seem to think rocks in the water would cause more damage than the oil that is coming our way. That defies logic and common sense.
I also spoke to the Vice President this week about the need to deploy resources quickly, including skimmers and boom. There are apparently over 170 skimmers on the way and that’s great, but we want to know where they have been for the past 72 days? We’ve been asking for these and other resources for weeks. We also must relax regulatory rules so more skimmers can be brought in from around the country and the world.
We also talked to the Vice President about the impact the drilling moratorium is having on our people. We all want drilling to be done safely, but we’re very concerned about an arbitrary 6-month suspension and also the fact that the commission set up the President to study the moratorium won’t even hold their first meeting until next month. We also continue to get mixed signals about claims process for people impacted by the moratorium. I said yesterday that the process is still as clear as mud because the President says folks should file claims with BP and BP says they are not handling claims. The reality though is that our people don’t want an unemployment check or a claims check, they want to go back to work.
We will continue to push the federal government to join us in the war to protect our coast. We know what’s at stake and we will win this war. It’s time for the feds to lead or get out of the way.
Sincerely,
Governor Bobby Jindal
Tags: BP Oil Spill
