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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