The biggest problem facing Mississippi in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf isn’t tarred beaches or ecological waste, the state’s governor Haley Barbour said on Sunday. It’s the national press corps, which, he asserted, is inflating the disaster’s current impact and, as a result, decimating the state’s tourism industry. In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the Mississippi Republican veered as close as any elected politician could to insisting that the biggest oil spill in the history of this country had been overblown — at least when it comes to his state.
OK, so I understand that one of the roles of a Governor is to be Cheerleader-in-Chief for his or her state. Any Governor worthy of the title is going to be spending a lot of time promoting their state. There’s a pronounced difference between promotion and whistling past the graveyard, though…and Haley Barbour seems to be heavily invested in the “Oil spill? What oil spill??” narrative? Yes, kids; denial is more than a river in Mississippi, especially when you’re determined to sell the world on the fairy tale that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico isn’t all that bad. “Feh…it’s just a flesh wound!”
So a few pelicans are now available in Chocolate Brown. So there are a few wetlands slowly dying from oil contamination. So beaches along the Gulf Coast look like an episode of “Tarballs ‘R’ Us”. The ocean will clean itself!!
It’s summer! We’re Mississippi!! It’s beautiful…wish you were here!!
Sure, I get the Mississippi hasn’t yet become the oil-fouled Ground Zero in the way that part of the Louisiana coast has. Still, to act as if business as usual should be the order of the day borders on criminal. It’s just a matter of time…and acting is if nothing is amiss simply delays any opportunity for developing an effecctive strategy for dealing with what happens when the oil does come ashore.
And the oil will come ashore.
Barbour has been one of the most defiant skeptics about the impact of the crisis in the Gulf, comparing the spill, early on, to the sheen commonly found around ski boats. Perhaps it’s because Mississippi, so far, has yet to feel the spill’s direct affects. The first signs of oil on the state’s shores came four days ago. Barbour, meanwhile, said that there have been only two cases of oil washing up on shore.
And yet, his lack of caution or concern is notable. On Sunday, Barbour joined a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers to criticize the president for putting a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. An investigation as to what went wrong with the BP well may not be completed. But the likelihood of another accident was statistically small, he stressed. And by the time the six-month suspension of drilling had ended, companies will have gone looking for oil off of different coastlines.
What I find most astonishing is the collective Republican devotion to deep water drilling given what happened on the Deepwater Horizon and the volume of oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico. It’s as if they’re thinking that the Gulf of Mexico has been “pre-disastered”; there’s NO WAY it could POSSIBLY happen again. Besides, it was an “act of God”, right?
As if God (if she exists) deals in incompetence, ineffective oversight, and a cavalier disregard for the environment….
I understand that Republicans are beholden to Big Oil. I get that they know full well who butters their bread. What I fail to understand is why Republicans, especially Barbour and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, are so all fired up about allowing deep water drilling to continue as if nothing happened? Yes, there are certainly the economic interests of the coastal residents who work for oil companies, but there are even bigger interests in play here- like the ecological health of the Gulf of Mexico. Republicans have been, are, and continue to be in thrall to the interests of Big Oil at the expense of residents of the Gulf and the ecology. As long as oil company stock prices are healthy, Republicans know that they can continue to count on Big Oil lining their campaign war chests.
Profits before people…and the environment. It might as well be the motto of the Republican Party.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
