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Baghdad on the Bayou: Disaster Capitalism and the War on Equality

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Vanishing Wetlands

"There are thousands of [oil] canals dug.

"I used to fly pipelines. I flew pipeline patrols where you would go out in an airplane and fly pipelines to the marshes. You come to these [oil] hubs and your line may come off of that hub and come in another direction and". it's just like spider webs out there. All of these canals were dug to bring these pipelines in and to do drilling. And all of that costs money. The oil companies would rather not have to do all of that digging and dredging to put a rig in there. It costs them money. They would rather not go out and directional drill under the city to get the oil that's under [the city].

"I mean, come on, and let's face it. Wherever there is a swamp--or was a swamp--there's oil. It's like that across the planet. It's not just us. We just happen to live on third largest delta system on the planet, which is the Mississippi River Delta, which has been a swamp for eons and has been producing oil for a long time. The fact is, we have a lot of oil here, and it's a lot cheaper to get it if you can just drill straight down into it, you know, part of the reason they're saying that New Orleans has sunk so much is because of taking oil from underneath. And every time you take oil out of a hole, something's gotta give.

"We [Louisiana] have got 4,000 rigs in the Gulf, compared to 100 rigs in the rest of the Gulf. There are 4,100 rigs approximately in the entire Gulf of Mexico; Louisiana has 4,000. We're not getting the money from the off shore drilling. We're getting the money from on shore. We get the state's given royalty rate from the on shore drilling but not from off shore. So it doesn't take a genius to figure out why there'd be 4,000 rigs in Louisiana waters, and only 100 rigs outside of Louisiana waters that belong to the United States. The federal government gets our [Louisiana's] share. It goes straight into the federal fund. That's been our big issue; [and] we've fought for it."

Big Oil Money

"After Katrina it was like pulling teeth to get something through Congress to give us some offshore royalty back, but they didn't give us a percentage. They gave us $20 million per year. It's $20 million per year for the first 10 years and then something else after that. And it's not even a percentage. The amount of money coming out of here you'd never know. Nobody knows. I don't think [we are] allowed to know. Because it's that much.

"Here's where the oil port is. Just 20 miles southeast of here is Port Fourchon, where all the imported oil and the Gulf oil comes in that runs through a pipeline up to the refineries. I've been saying that we produce 60% of our own oil but I've seen recently on the news that we import 60% of our oil now. So, we only produce 40% of what we use. So if we're importing 60% that means Louisiana is that much more important because this is where the oil port is. Because we have coastal oil refineries.

"MR. GO stands for Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. It was a canal that was dug just south of New Orleans, coming out of the 9th ward and St. Bernard parish--this canal was dug to go straight out to the Gulf. But it runs to two major refiners. What's behind the 9th ward? Two major refineries. Those things are running. The refineries are running. Nothing else is [running] in the ninth ward. [The lower Ninth Ward, mostly black and poor, has been depopulated since Katrina.] What else do you need to know? There it is. There are the answers."

FEMA and Homeland Security Rescues Oil But Abandons People


"Those refineries were running before they even started rescuing people. The lights were on over there before the lights were on anywhere else. Because that was the concern. But if anyone would have gone to these meetings where they were talking about this before the hurricanes" believe me FEMA had plans for what was going to happen when New Orleans flooded. And even four years before the storm they had Hurricane Pam. Which they made up--it was a drill [practice run].

"The drill had nothing to do with people. All of those meetings that I attended , that I listened to, I didn't hear them talk about people once. That's why I started Voice of the Wetlands (http://www.voiceofthewetlands.com) because we had no voice. Nobody was acknowledging that there would be people here. It was all about oil, and infrastructure. You know the first things were refineries and oil ports. Those are the first things on the lists of things to do. And that's exactly what happened.

"I get very aggravated with people thinking that FEMA messed up [after Katrina]. Or that it was a mistake. It was no mistake. This was a plan, they followed it to perfection, they ended up coming out and blaming this Michael Brown cat, who wasn't even in New Orleans. [Michael Brown was the Director of FEMA] He wasn't allowed in New Orleans until Homeland Security let him in. He was kept in Baton Rouge, and he said that when he was testifying before a congressional committee. The big problem was Homeland Security--and what their agenda was.

"As soon as Homeland Security took over FEMA, people down here started paying attention. I can't say people in New Orleans were because they never had to deal with FEMA. Down here we flood every three or four years from a storm event. But New Orleans doesn't flood as often, you know, when we hear Homeland Security took over FEMA, it's like "Oh my god--now what?"

"So I really started paying attention to things and how things were run. When Homeland Security is running it, that's a whole different agenda. It has nothing to do with rescuing people. Homeland Security is not a rescue operation.

"I did an interview with more than one person from another country. One in particular was a guy from Canada" we [FEMA] had ordered 20,000 more body bags after Katrina, from Canada. Somebody was investigating. And because they were saying 1300 people died, and we had 20,000 body bags in New Orleans and they ran out, and had to reorder another 20,000 body bags." (2)

Blackwater, Terrorism and Casualty Counts

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Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative environmental and political writer. She lives in rural northern Minnesota and South Florida. Her articles have appeared in The Society of Professional Journalists' Online Quill Magazine, the Huffington (more...)
 

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