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Oil spill update.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  July 29th, 2010 at 02:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

So, let us recap: an unexpected leak has dumped highly alarming amounts of crude oil into the water, taxing the resources of local authorities.  Wildlife and wetland areas are already affected, and there’s no sign of swift relief.  The governor of the state primarily involved – a state that frankly cannot afford more bad things happening to it – is screaming for the relevant federal authorities to get out of neutral and actually help, and screaming largely in vain.  And, of course, nobody’s quite sure how much crude has leaked, and how culpable the oil company is in the leak, and whether the same federal authorities that aren’t helping now are responsible for missing the conditions that caused the original leak.

Michigan can’t just seem to catch a break.

Contamination from a massive oil spill in the Kalamazoo River has spread 35 miles from the initial the source of the leak, potentially endangering another cleanup site and prompting a sharp rebuke from the governor.

[snip]

In a conference call late Wednesday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said the sheen has been seen from the air near the dam at Lake Morrow — an area officials with Enbridge Energy Co. Inc., the Canadian owners of the pipeline, had hoped to protect.

“The situation is very serious,” she said. “The company and the EPA promised us they would provide additional resources. They know the resources they have provided so far have been wholly inadequate.”

Much more commentary unnecessary, but I’d like to note for the record that the general assumption among the American people was that this administration would at least take its poor overall response to the spill down in the Gulf of Mexico as a not-so-subtle indication that THEY NEEDED TO DO BETTER NEXT TIME.  Well, it’s ‘next time.’  That part of Michigan is already virtually one big Superfund site: so where’s the EPA?  For that matter, why hasn’t the White House addressed this issue?  I know that over 800,000 gallons of crude oil may not sound like much compared to the Gulf spill, but it’s concentrated in a much smaller area…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • conservativemusician

    Right after his vacation. Better yet, do the responsible leadership thing like Obama and go on vacation yourself Jenny. Maybe Michelle can spare one of those 30 rooms for you.

  • gwalt

    I will be traveling on vacation until January 20th, 2013. Please direct any questions or needs you may have to Robert Gibbs and George Soros.
    Regards,
    Barack (Barry) Hussein Sotero Obama

  • http://wadingacross.wordpress.com logus

    The WH has its head in the sand. It’s not a conspiracy theory. The information is right out there. Obama wants this nation to tank, and he will walk away carefree.

    I’ve used the analogy before, and it’s still applicable. He was hired to paint the floors of this house that was in dissrepair. He then painted himself into a corner on purpose and is beginning to then tramp all over the fresh paint and around the rest of the unpainted house. He’ll then walk out the door, unfazed, grinning from ear to ear. He will not run in 2012 because he doesn’t lose. He has never lost, and he will not take that chance. He was selected before he was elected.

    By the way, if you’re black, did you know you’re a mongrel? So says Obama.

    This new oil spill in Michigan… that’s Democrat, liberal territory. I told people before he was elected that if he were elected he’d destroy the Democrat Party. I think that’s part of his goal. He’s no democrat. He’s a marxist, and he’s seeking to fundamentally change this nation while he’s got the opportunity. Then he’ll play his fiddle and watch the chaos with glee as DC burns.

  • snowshooze

    Isn’t anyone working on this spill?
    It does not appear so…why?
    Nobody can take time from work to help?
    Nobody cares?
    Bad weather?
    I don’t know, but it just has to be something else…

  • snowshooze

    Isn’t anyone working on this spill?
    It does not appear so…why?
    Nobody can take time from work to help?
    Nobody cares?
    Bad weather?
    I don’t know, but it just has to be something else…

  • bk

    I’m sure Michael Moore will soon be sharing how terrible the White House is.

  • gwalt

    In Dec 2008 I said he wouldn’t run in 2012.
    Why did Hillary take SecState?
    Because he told her he won’t run. By 2013 he will have inflicted much damage and harm and put into place many things to enrich himself (Petrobas?).
    He will still be treated like royalty and “think” he is still president really because he beat Hillary, then stepped aside the second time.
    He will be a billionaire in a very short time.
    Why bother with a second term?

  • Locked and Loaded
  • renny

    Coal mine disaster.

    Coast Guard maybe sinks the BP platform that breaks the oil pipe and starts the leak.

    MI experiences huge leak heading for the Great Lakes.

    Real declared crazies blow up a tanker off Iran.

    Better hope for global warming and a mild winter, because you won’t be heating your house.

  • dog_nut

    liberal in Kalamity-zoo. It is in the east side of the state where Ilve, but the west side is EXTREMELY conservative, both socially & fiscally.

  • cabanon

    this event for some political gain. States must exert their own sovereignty by promoting self reliance and responsibility. This means they should fix their own problems and not rely on the federal government to swoop in and bail them out every time they face a crisis. What kind of precedent is being set if you complain about the federal government not helping for every crisis? Its tacit approval of a myth that only the federal government can solve your problems.

  • StandardCandle

    “Sent from my blackberry“

  • techsan

    2 billion gallons of raw sewage….10x the amount of oil into the much larger Gulf…released into Lake Michigan. Another disaster…another vacation…wonder what the disaster/vacation ratio is these days.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …the administration’s inability to live up to its own extravagant claims with regard to the efficiency of large government is somehow my fault.

    :pat pat pat: Of course it is.

    Now, was there anything else? You got in your defense of the administration for the day; I dunno if you have a quota, but if you do then surely this fills it.

  • cabanon

    Do you think it is the federal government’s responsibility to fix Michigan’s problem?

    Because your post doesn’t read as criticism of the government’s claims like your reply states, it reads like you think its the federal governments responsibility. It reads as though you support the Democratic Governor’s reliance on the federal government.

    Now take Arizona for example and SB1070, there is a state and a Governor explicitly not waiting for or requesting the federal government to solve their problems, even though their problems are specifically caused by the feds! They are taking action.

  • http://wadingacross.wordpress.com logus

    A state might have a sizeable conservative community, but who’s in office running things?

    Michigan’s senators are Stabenow and Levin. Of the 15 Representatives, eight are Democrats of which Stupak, Conyers and Dingell are part. And, both your governor and l.g. are Democrats. 17 of the 38 state senators are Democrat, 67 out of 110 representatives are Democrat. What the breakdown of blue-dogs are, I don’t know… but we all know about Stupak.

    Of course, the sad yet humorous irony of the oil spill and the Federal gov’t's response to Michigan and its Democratic administration is not lost at all.

  • taxpayer1234

    people overall than the east side. From Michigan east is liberal country, which includes Lansing, Flint, and Detroit.

    Kalamazoo is in West Michigan, where men are men and libs are skeered.

    I lived for 16 years in West Michigan and 4 on the east side, so I’m not guessing about this.

  • taxpayer1234

    eating Krispy Kremes.

  • taxpayer1234

    quite a distance away from where the Kzoo runs into Lake MI.

  • http://wadingacross.wordpress.com logus

    or dog_nut, but my point still stands, Michigan is effectively liberal territory if the legislature has a large percentage of liberals and Democrats, your executive branch is Democrat, etc.

    I live in Missouri and was born and lived much of my life in Louisiana. In both states the urban areas tend to be fairly liberal while the rural areas lean conservative. Louisiana is considered a “red” state since New Orleans is only a quarter of the state pop. But here in Missouri, it’s 50/50, with half the state population in Kansas City and St. Louis, both heavily Democrat/liberal.

    Regionally the western portion of Michigan might be able to do their own conservative thing, but if the rest of the state is heavily liberal, when it comes to state or Federal issues, they’ll pull the western portion along kicking and screaming.

  • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir
  • snowshooze

    Quick! Right here…we need you!
    Where’s the mop?

  • taxpayer1234

    in Michigan, but I wanted to make clear that Michigan has long been a politically divided state, in the geographic AND political sense. During the last Great Recession, the western part of the state recovered much faster than did the east. And a Republican governor was elected not long afterwards. Not a coincidence, I believe.

  • harling

    Irony.

  • cabanon

    We know the answer to that. I was asking if Moe thought it should be their responsibility and not the state’s.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …ego wrote rhetorical checks that their body couldn’t cash. Pounding the table won’t help you in the slightest.

  • pamela1631

    Moe
    Isn’t that the SOP for the left…

    I think the new mantra for the Dems et all should be:

    “More crises! More crises!
    The better to keep the little people off kilter.
    {evil cackle soundtrack in the background}

    It’s like they’re using every bad sci-fi flick script for their playbook as cover.

  • cabanon

    no matter how much you make the assertion and secondly I’m just looking for some clarification on your post.

    You wrote about ‘taxing the resources of local authorities’ and that there is ‘no sign of swift relief’ and that the Governor is ‘screaming for the relevant federal authorities to get out of neutral and actually help’ and then you ask why the EPA and the White House hasn’t rushed to their aid yet.

    I understand your ‘rhetorical checks’ comment but from your post it seems you feel the federal government should be responsible for the state’s problems and that is fine if that is your belief. Again just looking for clarification and didn’t mean any offense.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Second off, I need not continue further.

  • Scope

    position in our favor. cabanon always seems to come up with the argument, or opposition opinion on most everything we support here at RS. I listed long ago the opposing positions that he/she has taken. I gave up on that listing long ago, because, cabanon is still here. I guess it must be that they haven’t used bad language. Oh well, we get what we deserve. I actually see cabanon as a far right radical which we do not need in our fight to retake the country, at the ballot box. Take a look at their comment on the SB 1070 diary. It should tell the story, but, who am I to know.