In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent David Vitter will face Democrat Charlie Melancon, as expected. In LA-02, State Rep. Cedric Richmond is the Dem’s choice to face incumbent Joseph Cao. In LA-03, Jeff Landry narrowly missed the nomination with 49.6% of the vote. He will face Hunt Downer in a runoff on October 2. The winner will face Dem Ravi Sangisetty in November. Times-Picayune coverage.
It was a sunny Friday afternoon just five years ago. My wife was in New Orleans helping her sister move into her new Warehouse District condo. At lunch, they noticed that a storm had moved into the Gulf, and was threatening the central Gulf Coast. It was the “K” storm, already 2005′s eleventh named storm, too many for late August. It would be a solid | Read More »
Scientists have discovered a hitherto-unknown oil-chomping microbes in the cold, briny depths of the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to find free oil out in the Gulf, either on the surface or in a subsurface plume, a little more than a month after the flow from the Macondo well was controlled. If you’re a bacteria, the BP spill was | Read More »
The Obama Administration has filed some 27,000 pages of documents in Federal court which disclose the process by which it decided to forge ahead with a deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, in spite of expert advice, public opinion and a Federal judge’s ruling. The documents also show that the Administration stonewalled a U.S. Senator’s request for information, a point apparently lost on | Read More »
A group for researchers from the Georgia Sea Grant grabbed headlines yesterday by challenging NOAA’s claim that 75% of the BP oil is accounted for – that it has been captured, burned, evaporated, degraded, dissipated or munched by microbes. The study by the Georgia group claims that 80% still lurks somewhere in the environment. Who’s right? First off, the numbers aren’t comparable because the Georgia | Read More »
On one hand, Mr. Obama’s “Worst Oil Spill in History” theme serves as pretext for eviscerating the offshore petroleum industry, an industry that, until this spring, was relatively healthy despite the recession. By doing so, he may suck the economic life out of four very red Gulf States. On the other hand, Energy Czar Carol Browner has joined the “Where has the oil gone?” chorus, | Read More »
Is the Islamic community within its rights to build a mosque near Ground Zero? Probably so. But is justice served when we focus on rights? Consider the story of King Solomon in 1 Kings Chapter 3. The wise king was confronted with the case of two mothers; when the baby of one mother was accidentally smothered during the night, that mother switched babies. From Solomon’s | Read More »
Remember back when BP severed the riser, so they could install the cap, the one that finally controlled the spill? Here is a photo taken by an ROV just after the severing was completed. The photo shows the outer shell of the riser, at one time a 21-inch cylinder, collapsed like a Coke can by the severing tool. Inside the collapsed riser are what appear | Read More »
As reported by Politico, Harry Reid has decided not to advance the Democrats’ Senate energy bill prior to the body’s scheduled August recess. The matter will be reconsidered when the Senate returns after Labor Day. Senate Democrats punt on spill bill “It’s a sad day when you can’t find a handful of Republicans to support a bill … that would hold BP accountable for the worst | Read More »
Interior Secretary Salazar imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling until November 30, contrary to the recommendation of a panel of experts from the National Academy of Engineering. For operations on the shallow water Shelf, the administration maintains, no official moratorium is in place. After all, the Shelf still enjoys a forty-year history of relatively safe and clean operations that is still intact, being several orders | Read More »
As oil stopped flowing in the Gulf, we’ve seen a flurry of “Where Did The Oil Go?” stories from the USA Today, Tom Friedman at the New York Times, and others. A new TIME Magazine article begrudgingly admits that “obnoxious anti-environmentalist Rush Limbaugh” may have been right when he asserted that the BP oil spill was something less than “the worst environmental disaster America has | Read More »
Texas is clearly not happy with the CLEAR Act’s intention to usurp control of state water bottoms. In a letter from Governor Rick Perry, plus the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, the oil and gas regulating Railroad Commission, the Land Commissioner, the Speaker of the House and the Chairmen of both the House and Senate Natural Resources Committees let the state’s Washington delegation know how they | Read More »
As Friday’s House recess deadline looms, the CLEAR Act is rushing toward a floor vote. The CLEAR Act was supposed to fix whatever went wrong with Federal oversight of the Deepwater Horizon. One provision of the bill, offered by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), would have set up a Congressional commission of petroleum engineering experts to investigate the accident. This proposal was accepted unanimously in committee | Read More »
Imagine if the government required automobile drivers to purchase liability insurance against the Worst Case Accident: totalling a 2010 Maybach Laundalet with four newly-minted orthopedic surgeons aboard. Worst case liability: $50 million or so. With a $50 million liability insurance requirement, who would drive? Only the wealthy. The Deepwater Horizon incident pointed up the inadequacy of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990′s $75 million economic | Read More »
It’s rare when we Fiscal Conservatives have as clear a teachable moment as you gave us with your decision to berth the Isabel (pronounced “luxury yacht”) in Newport, RI, instead of Nantucket, MA, where you and Teresa maintain a “cottage”. Again, we thank you. And, while we’re at it, we’ll point out that you are a hypocrite of the first rank.
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