Declaring victory and leaving

It doesn't seem like that long ago that both federal and BP people were telling us that they'd be here cleaning up long after the well was sealed. But this week the well was sealed and everybody on clean-up detail is ready to GTFO. The hole is plugged, the oil is "vanishing", and it doesn't seem like that comprehensive Gulf Coast restoration project President Obama was praised for slightly teasing at back in June* is going to be necessary after all. Or at least no one is talking about it anymore.

Meanwhile look who can't wait to get back out there.

Despite uncertainty about when the federal moratorium on deepwater oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico may be lifted, drilling companies say they are readying to return to work, maintaining their full complement of rig workers at full pay, and making improvements in their rigs to meet new federal safety standards required by the Interior Department.

Imagine that. Despite the repeated howlings of Jindal, Vitter, Scalise, et al, these drilling operators haven't all decided to pick up and move to Brazil and Africa for 20 years because we hurt their feelings for a few months. Turns out they would still very much like to extract their oil from our seabed after all. And they're ready to get right back at it as soon as victory is declared, which might help explain the haste with which the feds and BP are making that declaration.

Meanwhile, Louisiana fishers would like to get back to work too but, despite the great victory, that prospect doesn't look quite as bright for some reason.

Commercial fishing reopened in areas east of the Mississippi River last week, but St. Bernard Parish shrimper Jerome Ronquille expects it'll be a long time before he ventures out again to trawl the marshes outside of Hopedale

"We've got the best seafood in the country, but I don't trust my own product right now," Ronquille said on a recent afternoon in Hopedale, just off a BP-paid shift patrolling for oil. "We don't want to make other people feel sick."

At the other end of Bayou la Loutre in Shell Beach, Darrell Pecar and George Barisich were preparing for their first day back on the water, but they're facing fundamental roadblocks: No one is making ice, and no dock in lower St. Bernard is buying shrimp.

From the same article we learn that many fishermen who have switched to doing contract clean-up for BP are pulling in $2,000 a day while that work still exists, hazardous as it may be. But given that everyone is in such a hurry to declare victory and leave, how much longer can they expect even that stop-gap work to continue? Maybe they should try moving to Brazil.



*Quick excerpt from Moseley's Lens column about Mabus the Savior.

In light of recent history, cynicism in South Louisiana is justified. It’s certainly the safe play for our fragile psyches. If we sit back and expect nothing, there’s no chance of high hopes getting dashed.

But, is this really the best time to adopt such a darkened, unhelpful posture? The national attention from the oil gusher allowed Obama an opportunity to fast-track coastal restoration before it becomes cost prohibitive – and he seems to be taking it! In short, the Obama administration – with its Road Map, its Oval Office promises, and its appointment of Mabus – offers Louisiana perhaps its last, best chance to begin the process of coastal restoration. So is now the moment to sit back with a cranky “prove me wrong, I’ll believe it when I see it” posture?

Or to put it another way, this is all our fault for our stupid lack of faith. We had no idea the darkened unhelpful posture of our individual fragile psyches so affected what happens in the halls of power. Sorry we ruined the coast by not believing. Having failed to show due flattering deference to the authority of the people lying to us we clearly have failed in our duty as citizens subjects. If we are asked to just hop the next shrimp boat to Brazil we'll completely understand.

Update: Just to be clear since BSJD asked, I'm teasing Moseley in fun there. Today's Lens column is far less sanguine about Mabus. Not that I really thought Moseley was a big Mabus fan in the first place. At least not as much a fan as he was of Ed Blakely at first anyway.

Upperdate: Uh oh time to pack up the plantation.
McClelland: BP Fires 10,000 Cleanup Workers

In Grand Isle, Louisiana, cleanup workers (none of whom can be named; you know this drill by now) say their coworkers were either told to go home for Tropical Storm Bonnie and then never called back or fired in a massive and sudden drug test.

"Friday, the day before Bonnie, they sent a bunch of people home until further notice, and a lot of people didn't get the further notice," one supervisor told me. "Then last week, they shut the whole [cleanup operation] down. It was 'Piss in a cup or throw your ID in the bucket.' This was a BP drug test, not a [subcontracting] company drug test. It's the first time BP tested us."

Do they even do drug testing in Brazil?