There are always pivotal points in individual’s lives, societies or whole countries that define their future either erasing their past via descent into a Malthusian quagmire or courageously rebounding to the drumbeat of their faith, ancestors and founders, rebuilding on the original foundations that have weathered many storms; Such are the people of the Gulf Coast and Louisiana in general.
The Cajuns (Acadians) of Louisiana were the original American revolutionaries as their exodus to the bayous of Louisiana from Acadia (Canada) was in their refusal to swear allegiance to the same King George III that Paul Revere and Wentworth Chesswell made their midnight ride warning “the British are coming”. They were not alone, as Creoles, free people of color, Hispanics, Slaves, Europeans, Native Americans and even “Damn Yankees” have lived and died here coveting true freedom from oppression and tyranny while contributing to the rich fabric of this diverse culture.
In recent history there have been displaced Vietnamese who sought new lives on the bayous, shrimping in boats the Cajuns would no longer go to sea in and raising kids who are proud to be American. People like Congressman Anh "Joseph" Cao or Governor Bobby Jindal, Jazz great Wynton Marsalis, Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino or Chef Leah Chase did not reach their stations in life because of federal government programs like “Section 8”, “affirmative action” or groups like ACORN, but rather in spite of them. Even New Englanders who have arrived nearly destitute in the “Big Easy” initially living in horse stables have ridden the American Dream to great stature in wealth and community respect.
As diverse as these groups are and as broad a chasm between their politics, for example, Gov. Bobby Jindal and James Carville, they all have the ability to unite when “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Regardless of the cause of the Horizon Disaster and in keeping with my last Article, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the federal response to the incident has more to do with rescuing the failed Copenhagen Summit, denying Climategate and implementing Cap and Trade, than resolving the immediate challenge of stemming the flow of oil or cleaning up its mess. When the Obama Administration uttered the Orwellesque “keep the boot on their throat”, they were not really referring to BP but all of those in the Gulf Coast and the American Public in general who have been perennially strangled for real energy independence by successive bloated federal bureaucracies since the 1970’s.
You will be hard pressed along the gulf coast to find anyone who will not feel that jack boot as even the families who rely primarily on the fishery or tourism for their commonweal still have family members who work either directly or indirectly in the Oil Industry. Louisiana has been the cradle of the offshore oil industry venturing into the swamps and inland lakes in the 20’s and 30’s to the first offshore well in 1937 and the first well out of sight of land in 1947 after the Nazi U-Boat threat was gone, thanks in large part to the Louisiana Higgins Boats. The Semi-Submersible rig (Like the Deep water Horizon) was an invention born in the Gulf, as was the offshore supply boat. Former shrimpers like the late Edison Chouest built worldwide enterprises in this industry but stayed true to their bayou roots. Mom and pop machine shops developed innovative subsea and downhole tools used worldwide today. This is first major blowout in 73 years and over 35,000 wells drilled and the federal governments vested interest reaction to the crises via shutting down deep water drilling has resulted in at least one major international offshore service company holding a meeting this past week where names of all their other worldwide locations were put in a hat for the Louisiana based staff to draw their new assignment; the local Exodus has started!
It was Gulf Coast expertise and American/Cajun/Texan ingenuity that initially developed the North Sea and helped the Norwegians transition from their agrarian existence to the diverse wealthy country they are today.
Louisiana has never received their fair share of offshore revenues
I use the Norwegian example because as a sovereign state they receive full measure of the revenues and royalties from their offshore in an Oil Fund that as of March 31, 2010 had $443 billion accumulated; while unbeknownst to many Americans, Louisiana has never received their fair share of offshore revenues. An agreement was finally signed in 2006 after decades of debate, with a two step phase in of between 2008 and 2017 ultimately granting them a 37.5% share of federal revenue on new leases. What about all moneys the Federal Government collected since 1953 when they gave Texas and Florida rights to 10.3 miles of their coastal resources while restricting Louisiana to a mere 3 miles? Western energy-producing states have received more than 20 times what Louisiana does from federal mineral royalties for onshore mineral extraction; and it should be noted that the Minerals Management Service is collecting about $6 billion annually in oil and gas revenues from federal offshore leases, with about $3 billion coming from offshore Louisiana.
Yes, the Minerals Management Service! The same federal agency that is required to regulate the offshore annually received 6 billion from the industry it is required to police. While the Obama administration is pointing the finger at the “Cozy Relationship With Oil Companies” the truth of the matter is the cozy relationship between the bloated bureaucracy of the MMS, federal government in general and the $6 billion they collect. The Norwegians nipped any potential problems like that in the bud, by establishing the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to regulate the industry, collecting royalties do a separate fund plus creating and investing in StatOil and Norsk Hydro as long term investments for the Norwegian people; both publically traded companies that merged in 2008 with Norway owning 67% of the shares.
While I am not suggesting that the administration create a state oil company or nationalize BP, but they do need to learn from Norway’s example and divorce the MMS revenue collection from regulatory compliance. Louisiana has not gotten its worth out of the $3 billion annually collected by the MMS from its offshore while other Federal Agencies have used the Oil Industry as a scapegoat. This and previous federal administrations claimed that the various canals built by the oil industry over the years are the prime culprit in coastal erosion while conveniently ignoring the fact that the Intracoastal waterway dissected all the bayous that carried delta building sediment to the gulf and the Army Corp of Engineers completely contained the source of those sediments, the Mississippi via levees after the great flood of 1928.
Oil Wells off the Louisiana Coast
Since the Federal Government restricted Louisiana to only 3 Miles of its offshore and through the MMS has been rapaciously living off those proceeds since 1953, they have a fiscal and fiduciary responsibility make full and fair restitution to all along the gulf coast including those who will be put out of work by the offshore deep water drilling moratorium as well as responsibility for cleaning the mess up. The fact that only in Louisiana has the Federal Government restricted a state to 3 miles of the offshore and denied the state revenues from the offshore, while reaping 50% of their $6 Billion annual windfall may indeed have something to do with the lack of drilling elsewhere in the nation, while driving the pursuit of oil in to deeper and more hazardous waters and precipitating the incident in the first place.
P.K. Devine 65 years ago remarked that “Mankind can protect themselves from almost all forms of calamity and plague but cannot dig a hole deep enough to protect themselves from an idea shot out of a high powered propaganda machine”. The Czardom in the Washington is just such a propaganda machine trying to spin this tragedy for even greater federal government control over everyone’s lives, and we must remember the words of Ronald Regan "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."
In the coming days and months, we will be deluged by photos of oiled birds and wildlife, while the photographers thereof have not so much as soiled their hands rescuing or cleaning them. While BP has been increasingly criticized by the Czardom for Ads where they are reassuring the public of their commitment to clean everything up; Televised Ads financed by those with a vested interest in profiting from the Carbon Credit Ponzi scheme will increase, using the oil spill to promote Windmills, solar panels, Cap and Trade Legislation and making permanent the deepwater drilling moratorium thus leading to massive layoffs and the complete economic collapse of the gulf coast and possibly America as a whole. I firmly believe that neither John F. Kennedy nor Ronald Regan, let alone the founders of this country would believe what is happening before our very eyes today.
American Exceptionalism or Obama Czardom
I believe that this spill is just such a pivot point in American History between two diametrically opposed ideas; Constitutional restoration of a limited federal government of the people for the people and by the people with the rebirth of the American Exceptionalism that brought us to the moon versus total Socialist Government with lockstep subservience to Agents Provocateurs of International Governance who wish to redistribute Americas wealth while lining their own pockets with trillions of dollars in Carbon Credits.
Will enough of the true American Patriots of all political stripes finally awaken to restore the former, eliminate our energy deficit via an expanded search and environmentally sound use of all forms of North American hydrocarbon, alternative, renewable and nuclear energy while reaching for the stars with a new space program?
Or will the silent masses sleepwalking into slavery allow the propagandized images of the oil to grease the slopes of La Mancha towards a Spanish “Green Jobs” hell in the final exodus from American Exceptionalism while the Obama Czardom continues its Quixotic tilting at windmills while hiding its puppet masters underlying greed for Carbon Credit profits and desire for total societal control?
