Big Slick to Hit Florida By Friday; BP Continues "Trust Us" BS

June 3, 2010 (LPAC)—On or about day 45 of the Gulf of Mexico BP oil rig explosion, oil is expected to turn up on the beaches of the Florida panhandle. By Wednesday, an oil sheen was nine miles off Pensacola. Oil already appeared on the Alabama coastline, at Dauphin Island, and the Ft. Morgan Peninsula.

Thus, the extent of the oil spill damage is growing daily, as is to be expected. At the same time, the pretenses of damage-mitigation by BP and Obama's Unified Command — Federal agencies — are daily becoming more of an evil joke. What is required is to expropriate BP America, and make war on the crisis. A few of the parameters of the situation make this clear:

* OBAMA/BP GO-SLOW ON COASTAL PROTECTION. Only this afternoon, did the Obama White House send word to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, that the Unified Command today issued the requirement that BP Plc is to fund construction of five sand berms. A request to expedite this was made by Louisiana authorities on May 11! One such berm has already been constructed. Louisiana has 140 miles (235 km) of coastline affected by the giant oil slick at present.

These sand berms, and the other protective measures — boom, oil skimming, etc. — are limited, and threatened by strong currents and storms, but the BP/Obama stance of stalling and opposing such protection is reprehensible. A rear-guard action was taken yesterday by Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D), who sent a letter to Obama, asking him to get the Defense Department deployed in installing coastal protection.

The materiel itself isn't even in the pipeline. The Alabama State Port Authority said this week that they could not install needed boom protection for the vital Mobile coastline, because they lacked supplies of boom, as well as because of the unfortunate occurrence of strong currents.

* CLEAN-UP TEAMS AND VESSELS. Minimal deployment is the watchword so far, on the teams and vessels by BP for coastal clean-up in Lousiana. BP enforces a gag-order on the hirees. The total number hired on is still reportedly only in the range of 22,000. There are said to be 6,000 workers on coastal protection in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Requisitioning for hundreds of dredges, fishing vessels and other help should be underway.

* VAST FISHERIES DAMAGE. Federal agencies today declared 37% of Federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, out-of-bounds for fishing. In addition, state health authorities are closing many shellfish beds. Wednesday in Alabama, the oyster beds were closed.

About one billion pounds of fish and shellfish were taken out of the Gulf of Mexico in 2008, which included up to 30%-40% of the fresh catch consumed in the U.S. at certain seasons. This specialty sector — especially shrimp, oysters, red snapper and others — is now in the process of shutdown, and ocean-fishery experts are frantically studying what might be the long-term effects.

Of the total of fish and seafood consumed in the U.S., over 80% is imported (the largest category of imports of all foods in the U.S.), but of the remaining 20%, Gulf-sourced seafood is foremost.