Once again, however, events have born out the point of the government's methodical approach. This story describes the travails of one Louisiana town attempting to deal with an influx of workers. An atmosphere of racially charged suspicion hangs over the town, even though -- as usual -- there's no rational reason for that. Moreover, other towns on the coast simply don't have the infrastructure to take on any spill workers at all.
As I've written before, it's not easy to mobilize a massive amount of people, especially when they're not coming from an established reserve force. Mass mobilization means providing staff, management, infrastructure, support, and security. The work force necessary to pull this off will exceed that number of people who actually work on spill cleanup.
Like everything else in the spill response, mobilization requires time and persistence. That may not satisfy the people who want a response commensurate with the drama of the rig explosion, but it's hard to imagine what that response might look like. (The people who call for it the most loudly don't seem to know themselves.)
It would help if politicians like Louisiana governor Boob Bob Jindal would put the public interest ahead of their personal ambition. Boob Bob grabs headlines complaining about the government and boosting the snake oil island berms (another area in which the government's hesitancy looks increasingly justified), but seems to be doing little to help the communities of his state adjust to what is actually happening. But, Louisianans inexplicably love a guy whose brazen ladder climbing makes Sarah Palin look like an icon of self-effacement. Go figure...
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Jindal reminds me of a long-ago boss of mine who was lazy as all get-out and used to try to get everybody else to do what he was supposed to be doing. But when higher-ups were around all you could see of him were flying elbows and pumping knees in a show of working oh so very hard. Of course all that faux activity accomplished nothing, but for the brief time the district manager or any other bigwig was around, this guy looked like he was working up a storm.
That's a great analogy. Turn on the TV cameras, and the guy has his shirtsleeves rolled up and makes it seem that were it not for the feds, he'd personally have cleaned up the spill long ago.
The more I read about Boob Bob, the more I think he's running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Great post, K. If Boob Bob wants some action, he can call out his state's National Guard, which are under his direct command. Haven't seen him mobilize them fully yet...
Another time-consuming but important factor is training. I want the folks dealing with all this toxicity trained in the safest possible way to handle it, and how to use safety equipment. We are looking at a generation or two of BP-related health problems as it is...
Letting BP handle the response is like having the fox watch the henhouse, of course.
You make another good point: No worker is going to start in immediately -- each requires some degree of training. Which means that training is on the critical path for a mass mobilization, which means that an adequate number of trainers must first be identified, recruited, and assigned. And they'll require orientation as well. Just another example of what a slog this is by nature and why it will require persistence and long-term commitment, not grandstanding for votes.
I flat out don't believe that the situation would be materially different under a different administration, and it could well be worse. I know that there would be no escrow fund with any Republican in the Oval Office.
Didn't you know that people expect Obama to work miracles? He should be able to wave his magic wand and make it all go away.
No one thinks beyond his own selfish needs. Matter of fact, no one thinks PERIOD !!!
I still can't get over his response to Obama's first State of the Union address.
Darlene: If he did work a miracle, they'd criticize him for not working two.
Jayne: The whole country gaped in disbelief at that one!
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