Wet Bank Guide

As promised in the last post, it's time to discuss the rules in a knife fight.

Blogger Ashley raised the idea that New Orleans and Louisiana will have to rely on their own resources in this piece a few weeks back, under the Gaelic name Sinn Fein. Recent developments in Washington reinforce this idea: we are on our own, and must rely on Only Ourselves.

That doesn't mean that full compensation for the negligence of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Category Five levees and coastal restoration are beyond our reach. It just means that we need rely on ourselves, to use our own resources to make it happen. Lets begin by defining our resources.

Oil and gas. The port. Those are the keys. Both are inextricably tied to the collapse of the coast, and both were deliberate acts by the government, made for the benefit of the whole nation at our expense. It's time for the nation to pay the full cost of navigation and flood protection on the Mississippi and for the destruction of our protective wetlands by these activities.

We can ask nicely one last time and explain: the channelization and leveeing of the Mississippi and tributaries is what made the prosperity of the American heartland possible in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Oil and gas continued that prosperity in the 21st century. The bill is now due for the costs of these actions. To save the city--and by extension the port and the coastal oil and gas infrastructure--tens of billions of dollars are needed. All we ask is the same deal people like Alaska get--50% of offshore federal revenue, to pay for it

This is a perfectly reasonable and rational request. I expect them to slam the door in our face.

Fine. If they won't act reasonably, then its time to look at what we can do to shut down the port and oil-and-gas exploitation along the coast, until such time as reason once again prevails.

Everyone agrees that the governor's decision to try to block the next offshore oil lease may have helped focus the dear leader's mind on the issue, since the presence or absence of oil seems to play such a large role in their foreign policy deliberations. And let's face it, as his "people down there" comments of his last visit points out, we are in the view of the central government a foreign place.

Let's not stop at blocking future offshore oil leases. I think we must demand that our typically bought-and-paid-for Congressional delegation stand up to the oil companies and tell them their usually reliable votes for things like off shore exploitation of the gulf off Florida and ANWAR are off the table until we get 100% compensation, Cat 5 levees, and coastal restoration.

No Gulf of Mexico drilling. No ANWAR. No nothing. In fact, I think a windfall profits tax on oil would be a splendid way to pay for coastal restoration, since the oil companies have profited so handsomely from the rape of the Louisiana coast. Don't you Mary? (Hint: if you want to be re-elected, do this. Otherwise, maybe you can run for Hillary's seat when she runs for president).

I think the state also has an obligation to look very closely at the safety and environmental soundness of every inch of pipe and every Christmas tree and pumping station along the coast. Those are are not up to snuff should be shut down. There's a name for this in union disputes. It's called working to the rule. Lets look at the rules we have, see if we need more, and start enforcing them relentlessly.

No money, no oil. Capiche, George?

But why stop there?

River pilotage fees are set by the state of Louisiana. Six thousand ships a year land at the Port of New Orleans and the Port of South Louisiana (above the city to Baton Rouge). I think it's time to re-evaluate those fees. I'm thinking, say, $1 million per vessel sounds about right. That could net us $6 billion a year, enough for Cat 5 levees all through the state, substantial coastal restoration, and full and just compensation for our losses from the criminal negligence of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Of course, I don't think anyone would pay those fees. Ships would try to divert elsewhere. And there would be an immediate rush of Congressional action and federal court rulings to try and stop us. Still, I think we could temporarily shut down the offshore oil port--cutting of 25% of the nation's oil imports--and could push oil to $100. Which would be a good thing for Louisiana's economy.

The real impact would be to the heartland's economy. There simply isn't enough rail capacity to carry all of the agricultural and other bulk exports to other ports. Hell, there are never enough rail cars to go around right now. And even in normal times the cost of rail over barge transport is almost five times as much. People will say "but you'll ruin the port". The simple fact is bulk trade (the kind of business we do in the lower Mississippi) has no other place to go. I think we could cause a significant panic that would make it clear to the heartland what the loss of the port would mean.

I say we give Levees.org and Women of of the Storm one last chance to ask nicely, our elected officials one last chance to prove they put Louisiana first, and the government one last chance to respond reasonably and responsibly and give us the same deal inland states have for oil and gas lease revenue, so that we can rebuild.

Then we give them a swift one where they'll feel it.

Katrina NOLA New Orleans Hurricane Katrina Think New Orleans Louisiana FEMA levee flooding Corps of Engineers