Greg Palast’s BBC crew of journalist-detectives chase down British Petroleum bag men, CIA operatives, nuclear power con men — and “The Vultures,” billionaire financial speculators who, through bribery, flim-flam and political muscle, take entire nations hostage for mega-profits.
The action begins when the Deepwater Horizon explodes in the Gulf of Mexico and a confidential cable arrives on Miss Badpenny’s desk from a terrified insider. He has the real, hushed-up facts of the disaster — which can only be found hidden in the files of a Central Asian dictatorship.
Palast sets off for Baku to investigate the sexiest Muslim woman on Earth and the whereabouts of millions of dollars in a brown valise. Then he jumps the globe to an Alaska Eskimo village after receiving an extraordinary note from the Chief of Intelligence of the Free Republic of the Arctic.
The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force released its final strategy for long term ecosystem restoration for the Gulf Coast Monday following extensive feedback from citizens throughout the region. The Task Force delivered its final strategy recommendations on Friday to President Barack Obama, who established the Task Force by executive order.
The strategy is the first restoration blueprint ever developed for the Gulf to include input from states, tribes, federal agencies, local governments and thousands of involved citizens and organizations across the region, according to the release. The plan represents a commitment by all parties to continue to work together in an unprecedented collaboration to prepare the Gulf region to transition from response to recovery and address the decades-long decline that the Gulf’s ecosystem has endured.
EPA Administrator and Task Force Chair Lisa P. Jackson, partnering with Task Force Co-Chair Garret Graves, made the announcement during keynote remarks at the 2011 State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit in Houston. Ms. Jackson was joined by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco, Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, USDA Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Harris Sherman, according to a press release announcing the plan.
“After the Deepwater Horizon disaster, this Task Force brought together people from across the Gulf Coast in unparalleled ways to talk about how we tackle both the immediate environmental devastation, as well as the long-term deterioration that has for decades threatened the health, the environment and the economy of the people who call this place home,” Jackson said. “It has all come to this moment – when we move from planning and researching to supporting real, homegrown actions aimed at restoring this vital ecosystem.”
Bayou La Batre shrimper Danny Potter tells a local television news station that the last payment he got from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility was for less than 10 cents on the dollar of what he claimed he lost during the BP Gulf oil disaster. So he will file a lawsuit against the oil giant before the deadline of April 20.
Anyone who claims losses due to the oil disaster has until that date, which incidentally falls on the anniversary of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, to file paperwork with the Multi-District Litigation office in New Orleans, where all oil spill lawsuits are being consolidated.
The city of New Orleans suffered one of the worst disasters in U.S. history when Hurricane Katrina flooded the city in 2005. Then when the Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010, the people felt like the city was back. But seven weeks later, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.
An Interview with
photographer David Rae Morris
by Glynn Wilson
LocustFork.Net
David Underhill of the Mobile Alabama Sierra Club protests BP in Panama City, Florida
Legal Analysis
by Glynn Wilson
David Underhill of the Mobile Alabama Sierra Club, who recently protested a public forum sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior by wearing duct tape over his mouth since citizens were not allowed to speak like they should have been in a real democratic town hall public hearing, was also party to a stakeholders meeting August 17 with officials from national and local government agencies and environmental groups as well as the British Petroleum corporation.
There were already so many public complaints about the lethargic nature of BP’s response to paying claims to individuals and businesses along the Gulf Coast that the Obama administration stepped in June 15 and seized $20 billion of the oil company’s money, to make sure people receive compensation for losses suffered due to the largest and worst environmental disaster in American history.
By June 16, less than two months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico April 20, killing 11 workers and spreading it’s crude all over the Gulf from the Louisiana marshes to the beaches of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, President Barack Obama appointed Washington attorney Kenneth Feinberg to act as the arbitrator to lead an independent team to oversee paying out claims from the new $20 billion escrow fund.
But the question on Underhill’s mind at the August 17 meeting was whether Feinberg could truly be independent and fair if he is being paid by BP. So he tried to get an answer from one of the BP representatives at the meeting, Gary Willis. Clearly there is not much trust of BP on the Gulf Coast, since the company has lied time and time again about the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf, about the use of chemical dispersants, even about who has the power to control access to oiled beaches.
The answer Underhill got from the BP official was “fuzzy,” he said, so he and Casi Callaway of the Mobile Baykeeper did a followup interview with BP public relations representative Sam J. Sacco.
In an e-mail exchange obtained exclusively by The Locust Fork News-Journal, Sacco said: “A question was asked by one of your members at the Aug. 17 COAST meeting as to whether BP was paying the appointed claims administrator, Mr. Feinberg,” Sacco said. “The answer to that question is yes.”
Fortunately, my immediate and lasting impression is that the Commissioners are extremely well-chosen and broadly experienced, highly capable experts. They demonstrated throughout the long day that they are committed to understanding and helping to correct the institutional failures, both in the government and corporate culture, that allowed for this catastrophe.
President Obama established the Commission in May to provide recommendations on how the U.S. can prevent future devastating blow-outs and spills from offshore drilling. During the first public meeting, held in New Orleans in mid-July while the oil was still gushing, the panel heard emotional and highly charged testimony directly from the people working on and impacted by the spill.
In comparison, I expected this second meeting on regulatory oversight of offshore drilling to be somewhat dry and boring. On the contrary, I found myself riveted, largely because it was continually astonishing just how vastly under-regulated offshore drilling has been, and how poorly prepared we seem to be to continue our current level of drilling, let alone handle an expansion.
One of the most compelling witnesses for me was J. Robinson West, who served in the Reagan Administration and now owns and runs a huge global energy consulting firm.
With the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico seemingly capped, Americans are split down the middle over whether the federal government should maintain a moratorium on most offshore oil drilling in the Gulf, or lift it and allow drilling to resume before November, according to the latest Gallup Poll on the subject.
Americans as a whole are also divided over whether BP should be allowed to drill for oil in the same area again in the future, and the gender and partisan differences on this question are similar to those seen for lifting the Gulf oil drilling moratorium.
This survey makes clear, however, that far more people blame the British Petroleum corporation than the president of the United States or the government for the massive mess in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP’s Ratings Improved, but Still Negative
Despite Americans’ divergent views about future oil drilling in the Gulf, they share a common reaction to BP’s handling of the 2010 oil spill — one that is overwhelmingly negative. While more Americans approve of BP’s handling of the situation than did so in June, 64 percent still disapprove.
Tim Robbins narrates this ongoing series documenting the environmental issues and coastal community concerns in the wake of the BP drilling disaster. This episode features interviews with Len Bahr, Ph.D. the coastal science adviser to 5 different Louisiana Governors and Matt Rota of the Gulf Restoration Network discussing the Louisiana sand berm project, intended to block oil from entering the marsh. The episode also features an interview with Danny Lee of the organization Boat People SOS, discussing the challenges facing the Vietnamese commercial fishing community as they attempt to find work in the BP vessels of opportunity program.
Featuring music from Anders Osborne and other Gulf coast musicians. Gulf Tides is produced by the Gulf Restoration Network, and supported by the Vitalogy Foundation.
“An Evening with Tuscaloosa’s Waterkeepers” will feature watershed presentations and new photography exhibits by the two Waterkeepers protecting Tuscaloosa-area waterways: Nelson Brooke (Black Warrior Riverkeeper) and John Wathen (Hurricane Creekkeeper).
Dr. Doug Phillips of Discovering Alabama will deliver a special introduction. The show is working on a new documentary on BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The admission, parking and food will be provided for free, although both nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance organizations will accept and encourage optional donations.
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
