CNN Interviews Mobile Baykeeper’s Casie Callaway

The oil spill could decimate seafood industries in the gulf, according to Mobile Baykeeper Casie Callaway.

Environmental groups along the Gulf Coast are looking for volunteers to help in the aftermath of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, although it is being reported that clean-up work can’t begin until a plan is in place.

It’s not clear yet who is supposed to coordinate such a plan, but right now the best thing to do if you want to help is contact groups such as the Mobile Baykeeper, Alabama Coastal Foundation and the National Estuary Program, which are apparently joining forces to help organize the volunteer effort in the South Alabama area.

“We’re in a holding pattern until we receive instructions,” Bethany Kraft, executive director of Alabama Coastal Foundation, told the Mobile paper.

Casi Callaway, executive director of Mobile Baykeeper, said people are calling from all over the country offering assistance.

“It’s amazing,” Callaway said. “People are saying they can be here as fast as they can. We are working to get them jobs and get them trained,” she said, although for now, “We beg their patience.”

In Ocean Springs, two neighbors who went through Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have joined forces to organize a volunteer database.

Melanie Allen said they remember the “lag time” between when Katrina hit and when help arrived.

“We wanted to be as proactive as we could be,” she said.

Allen and her neighbor, Don Abrams, have created a Web site for volunteers to sign up at OilSpillVolunteers.com.

GOP Now Stands for ‘Giving Oil Penance’

The oil spill destined for Alabama’s shores is a shared tragedy which will inevitably end up in Alabama’s court system for years to come. If recent rulings in favor of Exxon-Mobil and the steady flow of out-of-state funds into the coffers of ALGOP Supreme Court races are any indication of future behavior, Alabama Democrats believe that the consequences for BP’s Gulf Coast oil spill disaster will never threaten the oil giant’s pocketbook in Alabama once jury verdicts reach the state Supreme Court, according to a press release from the Alabama Democratic Party.

“The only way for Alabamians to receive economic justice from this environmental calamity washing upon our shores this weekend is for voters to elect impartial justices that are unafraid to uphold a jury’s punitive damage verdicts when the evidence and law so requires,” Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said in a statement. “Alabama’s Republican Justices never have, and never will. It is time for voters of Alabama to look at our court candidates in 2010.”

The unfolding tragedy in the Gulf Coast will undoubtedly unleash a wave of legal action against BP. This oil spill will most likely destroy fishery habitats, eco-systems and property values — not to mention the endangered Gulf species it puts at further risk. It will cost taxpayers billions to clean up and will divert resources from critical areas in order to stop the flow of oil and clean up the spill. Experts have said it may take three months to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf and the consequences of this disaster will linger for years.

“Governor Riley says BP will pay for it, but when, and how? How can they repay for the damage done to North America’s second most biologically diverse eco-system, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta?” Turnham asked. “What about the immediate impact to our fisherman and our small business owners on the Gulf?”

Read the rest of this entry »

A Hurricane of Oil: A Million Birds Could Die

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Blowout valve fails on the deepest oil well. BP is responsible? We will see…