Doug Brinkely, Our Guy in the Gulf

For once, Doug Brinkley, historian and New Orleanian, had some not totally catastrophic news to report from the Gulf of Mexico region, which has been plagued by a gigantic oil spill from a BP well since April 20 of this year.

“It’s gotten capped, so there’s a little relief here,” Brinkley said. As for reports that the oil “footprint” in the Gulf has dissipated to the point where workers can’t find any oil, Brinkley was skeptical.

“Those dispersants, those heavy chemicals, push the oil to the bottom of the Gulf,” he explained. “On the sea floor you have rocks of tar all over the place, which is problematic for shrimp because it kills any creatures that thrive in mud or live on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Brinkley believes these tar rocks will be the largest problem facing the region once cleanup begins in earnest. The oil has also gone into the marshlands, he said, which is one of the things the parish presidents are most concerned about.

Except instead of saying parish presidents, Brinkley accidentally said parish priests, the title of a book he wrote in 2006. “This is an all time low,” Imus said of Brinkley’s book plug in the midst of a serious discussion about a tragedy. “Even for this program.”

Laughing, Brinkley corrected himself and pointed out that the parish presidents are trying to get the money they are owed from BP’s $20 billion recovery fund.

“What’s making people nervous is they’re in demobilization mode, BP,” he said. “They’re trying to pull out of there, and people are afraid they’re not going to get paid, even though they’ve been promised.”

And even if people do get paid, BP, with the Obama administration’s approval, is making them sign a waiver saying they’ll never sue BP in the future. “If I were in the Gulf South, I’d recommend to people get a lawyer, and look at your situation, and watch how things develop over the next month or two,” said Brinkley. “BP is demanding people sign it now, under duress, under pressure, feeling helpless, scared, and meanwhile they’re not investing any new resources or anything to help the community in any proper way.”

One of the scariest unknowns is how the dispersant Corexit, which is being used to break up the oil and is banned in Europe, will affect the health of Gulf Coast residents.

“The EPA had warned BP not to use it,” said Brinkley. “And BP did a blanket, Agent Orange-like dropping of it all, and now they’re asking the residents down there to sign waivers.”

But BP’s behavior is not uncharacteristic of modern oil companies, which Brinkley said have gotten so powerful that they look down on nation-states. “They’ve been disdainful of any kind of federal regulation,” he said, adding that BP has yet to pay out any of the $20 billion, despite television ads to the contrary, because they’re still trying to raise money by liquidating assets in Egypt and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Brinkley is knee-deep in the crisis, talking to everybody on the Gulf Coast from BP executives to out-of-work fishermen. He’s got more time now to investigate, he told Imus, having just finished writing another book two weeks ago.

“Don’t be trying to plug that, Doug,” Imus warned his guest.

-Julie Kanfer