Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana bashes the federal government loudly, regularly, over the oil spill in the Gulf. The oil staining Louisiana’s beaches, devastating its marshlands, killing its fishing industry and threatening to kill what’s left of this year’s tourist trade shouldn’t be there, he thunders.
“Let’s make no mistake that what is at threat here is our way of life.”
It was, Jindal accuses, the disjointed response of British Petroleum and the federal Department of the Interior that was at fault.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reacted early with angry words. The government would, he said, “keep the boot on the neck of BP” and would take over if the company failed to stop the gushing oil.
Then reality struck.
Salazar backed down and agreed that BP and the rest of the oil industry that drills in deep water have what know-how exists to solve the problem. Government doesn’t. If the well is to be capped, BP, calling on whatever other well-killing experts there are, will cap it.
What should be clear, even to Gov. Jindal, is that BP’s motivation to kill the well and clean up the mess is as high as motivations can get. The company’s loss in this catastrophe will run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Every day the oil continues to flow out of that mile-deep hole the losses mount higher. If Louisiana’s way of life is at stake, so is BP’s solvency.
BP can be faulted for not having all of the safeguards that have been developed in place. It cannot be accused of dragging its feet in response to the explosion and its consequences. It has done everything its engineers, and experts from throughout the industry, have proposed.
When all of the studies have been completed, prescriptions for new deep water drilling regulations will be written. If those studies show that the oil industry has not been regulated as strictly as it should have been, it will be difficult to pin the blame on the current administration, which has been in office less than two years.
In the meantime, Gov. Jindal should put his presidential ambitions on hold and spend his energy on the cleanup.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
