BP has poured almost immeasurable amounts of money into the Gulf Coast since last year’s oil spill, funding everything from ecosystem research to tourism promotion in Shreveport. Meanwhile, restaurant owners, oyster fishermen and others affected by the spill are still forced to sit in plastic chairs outside the Gulf Coast Claims Facility to fight for their relief.
Jeremy Alford writes in New Orleans' Gambit newspaper that there were numerous other compensation programs to surface after the spill, such as the $100 million BP fund for rig workers who were expected to lose their jobs when drilling was shut down. But that program, along with others that BP funded, remains largely untapped while companies hired to oversee the vacant job-training sessions are still taking a cut of the money.
And despite all the untouched money floating around, BP execs sent a letter to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility recently asking administrators to stop paying out claims for future losses. That can’t sit well for coastal residents whose livelihoods depend on the oyster beds that were destroyed last year and take three to four years to recover:
The GCCF was created in August of last year and it still has a long way to go. At last count, the facility has received approximately 857,000 claims from more than 500,000 individuals and businesses. So far, in excess of 300,000 claims have been approved, of which more than 150,000 are actually settled. The total payout is quickly approaching $5 billion. BP initially put up $20 billion to bankroll the GCCF — and spent millions in slick TV ads touting its alleged generosity and commitment to “making things right.”
That was last year.
Today, BP’s line goes something like this: “Multiple lines of evidence demonstrate that, to the extent portions of the Gulf economy were impacted by the spill, the Gulf economy has recovered, and there is not a basis for continuing to pay a future factor to account for the risk of future loss.”
That’s from the letter sent to GCCF officials two weeks ago.
As folks on the ground and along the coast prepare to get shafted — again — elected officials continue to do what they’ve done from the beginning: look for deep pockets. There’s no shame in that, as long as it’s done for the benefit of communities and constituents.
Clearly, there’s a lot of cash on the table. Years from now — or, one hopes, sooner — somebody is bound to ask, “Was it used effectively?”
Read more here.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed