Angles On The Oil Spill

Two Louisiana natives covering turf reporters ain't. First up, what people aren't getting about the oil spill crisis. This guy is ticked on two accounts. Lousiana doesn't reap the proceeds of its own oil drilling.

a “compromise” bill was offered by Sen. Landrieu, whereby Gulf States would receive 37.5% of the royalties from federal waters off their coasts, but not effective until 2016.
Port Fourchon alone furnishes between 16-18% of the oil supply for the entire country.  Roughly one-third of U.S. oil production is from offshore production, and 80% of that production is from off our state’s coast.  More than one-fourth of the nation’s oil production comes from off the Louisiana coastline.  Our reserves account for almost 20% of all the U.S. oil reserves, and we also hold 10% of the nation’s natural gas reserves.
We assume risk that other NIMBY states choose not to take in order to help with domestic production of oil and natural gas, yet until 2016, we will get nothing from production more than 3 miles off our coast, and after that, will only receive 37.5%.  Meanwhile, those same states get to enjoy the fruits of offshore royalties pouring into the federal treasury.

 Plus, he's tired of hearing talking heads say Louisiana is reaping the fruits of its "corrupt" oil harvest.

Here is a clue for those people.  We have a 6,000-7,000 square mile Dead Zone in the Gulf right off our coast, where no marine life can survive.  The cause of this huge dead area is NOT oil & gas exploration.  Rather, it is due to farm “run-off”, chemicals pouring into the Mississippi River, then being dumped into the Gulf.  Your farm chemicals have done more damage to our marine resources than all the exploration in the Gulf would ever accomplish.

His solution:

Your state doesn’t want to help produce domestic petroleum.  Fine.  But neither should you reap the benefits of offshore royalties from Gulf of Mexico production.... This is not a Republican/Democrat issue.  Louisiana deserves a greater share of royalties for our risk, and we deserve them now.

Curtsy to Opinionated Catholic's twitter.
Next up, Justin Torres on the spill's effect on New Orleans' recovery.

in New Orleans, downtown lunch patrons formed a long line outside Commerce, a counter lunch joint where ladies who call you “baby” serve the best shrimp and oyster po-boys in the central business district. Better get some shrimp now, they told each other. Who knows when we’ll get it again?
For many Louisianans, the moment the spill went from a personal tragedy and public nuisance to an outright disaster, it had to do, as so much does down here, with food.

Hmm. This throw-away is left unexplained. How can the sea is rising this quickly?

Even before Deepwater Horizon exploded, this area was under stress. The state loses the equivalent of a football field of wetlands every day to rising seas, and Katrina wiped out 217 square miles of coastal wetlands in one day, destroying valuable shrimping and fish-spawning areas.

But the big point is the loss of momentum for a recovering city. RTWT.