An exceptional, deeply satisfying diary published Monday didn't get many eyeballs, so I'm posting a big chunk of it here in hopes that it will whet your appetite for reading the whole piece. It's Mike Stagg 's analysis of how The Deep Water Moratorium Threatens Two Louisiana Republican Oligarchs. Mike posts at Democratic Louisiana:
| Any chance for good cooperation between the federal government and the state of Louisiana in the response to the BP Gulf Gusher died on May 30 when the U.S. Department of the Interior declared a six-month moratorium on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the then month-old disaster. Although the New York Times reported that Governor Bobby Jindal's personal dissatisfaction with the federal response to the disaster had gone public by May 3, the moratorium ratcheted up the pressure in the already tense situation by threatening losses in the industry that had caused the disaster. ... So, the moratorium looked like the prudent call until the cause of the BP Gulf Gusher could be identified, the well capped, and a new set of safety rules issued based on what was learned from this incident. But, alarm about the potential impact from the moratorium quickly went up along the coast and from within state government. Tens of thousands of jobs were threatened if the moratorium was allowed to stand. The job loss numbers fluctuated but trended downward in the first weeks after the moratorium was announced. Jindal assigned his newly minted Lieutenant Governor Scott Angelle the task of heading up the effort to generate public opposition to the moratorium. Angelle formed a coalition and had an online petition created. He traveled across the southern part of the state rallying opposition. He met with federal officials, parroting dire predictions of the impact of the moratorium. He followed Jindal's lead and bashed the President. ... Still, the moratorium stuck. Then Hornbeck Offshore Services, LLC, of Covington, announced its intention to file suit challenging the moratorium. It was assigned to Federal District Court Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans and the rest is history. Feldman overturned the moratorium. Hornbeck was joined in the challenge by 37 other companies in the challenge, giving the impression that a broad swath of the industry opposed the moratorium. The governor's office filed a brief in support of Hornbeck's claim. ... The involvement of these 37 companies did not constitute a broad industry response. It was, instead, a shriek of anger at the federal government that had thrown into jeopardy the empires of two of the key members of the new Republican oligarchy that has been ascendant in Louisiana politics in recent years. The Bollingers and the Chouests were reliable heavy hitters for the party and its causes. In trying to prevent another blowout in the hazardous deep water environment, President Obama had unwittingly delivered would could prove to be a lethal blow to some of some of the wealthiest arch conservative activists in the state. If the President did not realize the full extent of the in-state political implications of the moratorium, it did not take too long to become evident. |
Click the link. There's much, much more.
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Green diary rescue appears Sundays (except for three-day weekends) and Thursdays. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily mean my agreement with it. The rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
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In case you missed the news over the Independence Day weekend, Eclectablog took note that Obama announces $2 BILLION in solar power investments: "This is an industry and an energy source that needs a kick start. Much of the Recovery Act money that has gone into solar power-related projects has ended up going to foreign companies for the very simple reason that there just aren't that many USA companies to invest in.This is a huge commitment to USA-made solar energy equipment and components. Meanwhile, right here in my own backyard, University of Michigan scientists are figuring out how to make plastic solar cells that have a high enough efficiency that they can compete with standard silicon and thin-film cells."
continued at Daily Kos....
