Gulf Oil Spill: Stop Worrying, Industry Says In Galveston

Boy, you’ve really gotta hand it to the oil & gas industry folks. I mean, after all, we’re just shy of 40 days since the start of BP’s crude ooze in the Gulf, and already a consortium of energy elites has launched a propaganda blitz via America’s WETLAND Foundation.

And who do they blame for this latest “industrial accident,” as BP propagandists are attempting to rebrand it? Was it was those crazy Minerals Management Service kids who spent more time surfing porn and tweaking all over Lake Charles than paying attention to industry officials filling in their own inspection reports in pencil?

Nah, according to a few America’s WETLAND Foundation delegates at its forum this week in Galveston, this BP “mess” stems from the “politics,” “theatrics” and “gotcha sound bites” propagated by the Obama administration. Never mind the culpability of corporations like BP in the business of creating huge ecological risks that can devastate life for millions of Americans along the Gulf Coast.

So what in the hell is America’s WETLAND Foundation? I mean, it looks
grassroots. It sounds grassroots. But read its list of sponsors, and
you’ll find the golden boys club dominated by representatives from oil
industry companies.

Perhaps the saving grace came when Susan Kaderka, regional director of
the National Wildlife Federation, clashed with Texas Land Commissioner
Jerry Patterson, who complained about the media using “spewing” to describe
the oil from the blowout, favoring the word “discharge” be used.

Patterson went on to say that Spanish explorers discovered oil that had
seeped to the surface in the 1500s, and this was a natural occurrence.

“It’s not to say what’s happening in the Deepwater Horizon spill is not
catastrophic,” he said. “It’s just to say we need to put it in
perspective.”

Kaderka fired back, “It troubles me to hear this compared
in any way to natural seeps. This is a major pollution event. What is
the acceptable cost of doing business?” she asked. “What are we expected
to endure?”

Toward the end of the morning session, one energy representative said,
“The media is presenting a distorted view of the reality. I mean look at
what happened with the Exxon Valdez. People up there in Alaska quit
their jobs to join the clean up. And Exxon Valdez didn’t bankrupt the
state of Alaska. That issue has been resolved for years, and the
environment up there is fine. After all, Sarah Palin is always sayin’ ‘drill baby drill.'”

Said Patterson,

“This business of congressional hearings with all the energy

executives amounts to nothing more than politics. They want to
find a

villain. I mean, it’s a ‘gotcha’ hearing to shine a light on our

industry. But we are the goose that lays the golden eggs for these

Gulf states.”