Bobby Jindal Berms A $200 Million Waste

5:42 pm EST December 16th, 2010 | Republicans | 9 Comments

Jindal didn’t a lot of crowing to the cameras about this during the BP spill, but you should know he’s a Republican governor so the odds of him being full of crap are mighty high.

The big set of sand barriers erected by Louisiana’s governor to protect the coastline at the height of the Gulf oil spill was criticized by a presidential commission Thursday as a colossal, $200 million waste of BP’s money so far.

Precious little oil ever washed up on the berms, according to the commission — a finding corroborated by a log of oil sightings and other government documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered the berms built over the objections of scientists and federal agencies — and secured money from BP to do it — out of frustration over what he saw as inaction by the Obama administration. During the crisis, Jindal boasted that the sand walls were stopping oil from coming ashore, and the idea proved popular in Louisiana.

In its stinging report, however, the commission, appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the spill, called the project “underwhelmingly effective, overwhelmingly expensive.” Still, the panel did concede that the sand might ultimately prove helpful in Louisiana’s long-term effort to restore its badly eroded coastline.

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9 Responses to “Bobby Jindal Berms A $200 Million Waste”

  1. Quaker in a Basement says:
    December 16, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    So you’re saying Bobby’s booms were a bust?

  2. Sean D. Martin says:
    December 16, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    Often protective measures are put in place and the problem they guard against never happens. Houses are required to have fire alarms in all bedrooms. What tiny percentage of those alarms have ever gone off?

    “little oil ever washed up on the berms, according to the commission” But was it a reasonable concern that some might before the berms were built?

    But Billy Nungesser, president of oil-soaked Plaquemines Parish, said the berm project was absolutely the right decision at the right time.

  3. Sean D. Martin says:
    December 16, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    BTW, Oliver, your link to the article has an extra “/print” at the end that sometimes causes problems with the article loading.

  4. Got My Irish Up says:
    December 16, 2010 at 8:48 pm

    $200 MILLION dollars??!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?

    ZOMFG!!!1111!!!!!!!1

    That’s like 0.00025% of what The Great PreSpender inked in his failed stimulus package of February 2009! You remember, the one that created or saved eleventy quajillion jobs?

    But I think Gov. Jindal deserves some credit for paying more in both money (this is a joke, minions) and attention (this is not) to the oil spill than Old Tarballs (note the caption, intolerant liberal hatemongers!) did.

  5. SaveFarris says:
    December 16, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    If Jindal could have built the berms early (like he wanted to before Obama red-taped him to death), the berms would have caught the oil before it hit the coast.

  6. Jaim says:
    December 17, 2010 at 12:14 am

    Palin/Jindal 2012!!!

  7. tim says:
    December 17, 2010 at 10:04 am

    Sean, Jindal went ahead with the project over the objections of scientists. Turns out the scientists were correct. I’m not sure why the opinion of the president of a parish is relevant here.

    We’d all be a lot better off if we listed more to people who know a little something rather than the people who just want to be seen as “taking action”.

  8. Sean D. Martin says:
    December 17, 2010 at 7:13 pm

    Sean, Jindal went ahead with the project over the objections of scientists. Turns out the scientists were correct. I’m not sure why the opinion of the president of a parish is relevant here.

    That’s all I was asking: Whether the decision was prudent or not. The part of the article quoted by OW essentially says “Little oil hit the berms, so we didn’t need them. It was a waste to build them.” And hindsight always changes the perspective. The article didn’t quote any authority or knowledgeable person explaining WHY it was a wrong decision at the time it was made, only the comment from someone there that it was the right decision. Hence my including that quote for illustration.

  9. Jaim says:
    December 18, 2010 at 12:04 am

    So a “rising star” in the GOP is both wasteful in his spending and anti-science and anti-fact?

    Next you’ll be telling me there’s booze in Rick’s bar!