Louisiana
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The next phase of the Gulf oil disaster: lawyers and lobbyists descend
Watch out: They’re coming …We’ve gone from a gush to a seep in the Gulf. Sounds like progress. But in some ways, things are only beginning to get oily. This is the part where the lawyers and the lobbyists come in. What’s ours is ours: Let’s start with a report from the Mobile Press-Register that […]
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A deepwater drilling moratorium might be a bad idea for Louisiana
We can’t all go cold turkey.This article is part of a special issue of The Nation magazine about green energy, “Freedom From Oil.” PORT SULPHUR, La. — Captain Pete, as everyone in town calls him, has been an oysterman nearly his entire life. He started as a boy, learning the trade from his father, who […]
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BP whistleblower: ‘They just don’t know who they’re messing with’
If you’ve been reading Mother Jones lately, you’ve heard about BP’s stranglehold on media access in the Gulf, which has included preventing reporters from visiting oil-soaked public beaches and barring its spill cleanup workers from talking to the press. Now, one of BP’s ex-media enforcers is speaking out. Former BP contractor Adam Dillon went public […]
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Crawfisher Drew Landry sings the ‘BP Blues’ to president’s Gulf spill commission
Testimony at commission hearings doesn’t usually go viral, but Drew Landry changed that this week when he serenaded President Obama’s oil-spill commission. Landry, a 37-year-old Lafayette, La., native, is an out-of-work crawfisher. He wants to volunteer with oil-spill cleanup but was turned away. He says “going green” could be a good solution, but he doesn’t […]
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Fear of job losses and oil-industry incompetence feed debate over drilling freeze
A stormy debate is brewing over the offshore drilling moratorium.On Monday, the Obama administration unveiled its do-over plan to temporarily stop deepwater drilling. On Tuesday, the heads of the commission created by President Obama to investigate the BP spill told reporters that maybe the moratorium should be lifted sooner rather than later. “What’s up with […]
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Good news for deepwater-oil junkies
We’ve all heard that we’re addicted to oil. But in the wake of the BP spill we might do well to take the oil-as-a-drug metaphor a little more seriously. For starters we need to understand that deepwater oil is the really bad stuff, the petrochemical heroin – high risk, costly, deadly. Sooner or later we […]
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Will hurricanes rain down oil on the Gulf of Mexico?
An oily mess on the Gulf coast.Photo: David HelvargBy the end of the summer, it could be raining oil along the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Alex is the first of a series of 14 named storms predicted for the 2010 hurricane season. The Gulf is warmer than it’s been since before 2005 when unusually warm […]
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Delegation from oil-afflicted Amazon visits Louisiana tribes hit by BP disaster
A delegation of indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador is visiting Louisiana this week at the invitation of the United Houma Nation, a tribe in coastal Lafourche and Terrebone parishes that has been hit hard by the BP oil catastrophe. The Ecuadoreans have come to share lessons they’ve learned dealing with another oil disaster: U.S. […]
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VIDEO: Is Gulf seafood safe to eat after oil spill?
New Orleans is world-famous for its seafood, but the Gulf Coast oil spill has left the future of the industry and those who rely on it for their livelihoods in jeopardy as fishing grounds close and diners fear for the safety of their meals. In this video, OnEarth magazine examines the impact of the Deepwater […]