Report on the Gulf Coast, Part I

by Alex Goldman

After Katrina, WISPA members such as Mac Dearman were heroes, helping those who had fled the disaster area and helping build emergency response infrastructure. Just four years later, the gulf oil spill is a completely different disaster.

Nobody knows what to do.

“The uncertainty is hurting us,” says Cliff LeBoeuf, president and owner of Computer Sales and Service Inc. of Houma, Louisiana. The area’s two large industries, fishing and oil, have shut down, paralyzed with no clear idea of their own future.

These are industries with a long history. On the David Letterman Show, chef Emeril Legasse said that the P&J Oyster company (his favorite) has closed. That’s a business that was founded in 1876 in New Orleans and has now closed. “We’ve been not shucking oysters since last Thursday,” Al Sunseri, P&J co-owner, told me.

Did he know that Emeril Legasse said P&J was his favorite company? “I don’t stay up that late. I get up at 2:30 AM, and recently, my days have been longer.” P&J, Sunseri says, has delivered to Emeril since the mid 1980s.

“We’re a 134 year old business and have been at the same location since 1921 and closed only during Katrina.”

The business may change forever. He says that the fresh oysters come from beds in Lafourche, Jefferson, and Plaquemine parishes (parish map here). “One way or the other, we’ll be okay,” he hopes. But the business will have to get its oysters from the East or West coasts, increasing costs and changing fundamentally what the company offers — the oysters will no longer be the freshest in the USA, but Sunseri hopes to continue to deliver the best available. There’s substantial overhead that will have to be reassigned, and a lot of work to do, all while the company is earning zero revenue.

The press is interested in his story. He’s already talked to The Wall Street Journal and is getting ready to talk to the BBC.

WISPs are finding that a large number of businesses have shut down temporarily as they try to figure out what to do next. LeBoeuf estimates that in his area, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, oil accounts for 60 percent of jobs and fishing for 20 percent. “We operate a full service computer store in addition to the ISP, and our PC sales have stopped,” LeBoeuf syas.

In Mississippi, Joe Miller of DSL by Air says that his area, which relies heavily on tourism, has been harmed terribly by the disaster. He says he does not see oil on the shores, but that’s the perception. “The biggest thing that has effected the gulf coast here is not the oil spill itself, it has been the main stream media. They have put their spin on this. They are reporting that everything everywhere is knee deep in oil. This alone has killed the tourism market. The market is down over 50 % just from the lamestream media. I’m not trying to make light of the oil spill, but the media is killing the MS gulf coast. Revenues from my RV parks are down 80 % because no one is coming here.”

Of course, when (or if) the oil does arrive, Mississippi will fare as poorly as Lousiana. “It is going to take a long time to over come this oil spill if it actually hits the beaches of the MS gulf coast. We have a lot of shimpers here that have been fishing for generations. The way of life for a lot of folks will be changed for decades.”

Making BP pay, making sure it never happens again

Headlines are being made by a $20 billion fund to compensate victims — into which BP will contribute about $5 billion per year BP press release (h/t TPM). BP will contribute between $1 billion and $2 billion per quarter, starting in Q3 2010. In effect, the USA is giving BP an interest-free loan on favorable terms. BP’s stock rose rapidly today.
The fund will be modeled on a fund that compensated victims of the 9/11 attacks.

On a more positive note, the US Coast Guard has posted an RFI that identifies key technology gaps exposed by the disaster response to date.

The perception, locally and nationwide, is that BP cut costs so drastically that it is responsible for the problem. LeBoeuf noted that BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, faced some tough questions in Congress.

For now, the US government wants BP to remain a solid company, but lawsuits and potential criminal charges could eventually affect BP too.

For residents, nobody knows what will happen next.

Update corrects earlier mischaracterization of the $20 billion as coming from the US government.

Tags: oil

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