The verdict is in on Bobby's berms (updated)

[ProSense]

The verdict is in on Bobby's berms

by Jed Lewison

Remember Bobby Jindal's idiotic proposal to build sand berms to stop the flow of oil from BP's leaking well? Well, here's how badly it worked:

So far, the berms have captured only 1,000 barrels of oil, according to official estimates, compared with the nearly five million barrels believed to have spewed from the BP well over all. By contrast, more than 800,000 barrels of oil were captured by BP at the wellhead, and roughly 270,000 barrels of oil were burned off by Coast Guard vessels offshore. Skimming operations, meanwhile, recovered at least 34 million gallons of oil-water mixture.

The cost of Bobby's dumb idea? $240 million so far with $120 million more to go. That is a cost of $360,000 per barrel of oil! Talk about government waste! I'll guarantee you this: before this thing is done, we're going to find out that Bobby's idiotic idea actually ended up lining the pockets of one of his biggest political contributors.

Updated to add the NYT graphic:

[Kdillard]

1. Didn't he criticize the Obama Administration for not going full out

to approve and support this plan quickly?

[ProSense]

2. Yeah, he had a lot of fans too. n/t

[Old and In the Way]

3. And Jindahl is considered to be the republican version of a "policy wonk"

More like a policy wanker. I wonder which of Vindal's corporate campaign financiers thought this one up? And how much of this taxpayer disaster did he pocket in the process? The beauty of this swindle is that it's perpetual...they'll be rebuilding these sandpiles after every storm.

This is what happens when Republicans control the purse strings....a public disaster is an opportunity for private exploitation, so we lose twice.

I hope this story gets amp'd around the politicsal ionisphere this week...because Republican's are running a lot of people who are far less capable, but far more dangerous than the Governor of Louisiana...

[joshcryer]

4. Jed Lewison didn't read the full article, one of the biggest benefactors *is* a Jindal contributor:

The Shaw Group, the lead contractor on the project, is based in Baton Rouge and has been one of Mr. Jindal’s leading campaign contributors over the years.

Disgraceful.

[Jennicut]

6. And obvious. We all knew that was going to be a reason why he pushed the berm idea so hard.

Not for saving the LA coast of course...

[JI7]

5. This is the same guy who has a problem with spending money on Volcano Monitoring ?

[Phx_Dem]

7. I hope James Carville reads that.

He was all about building those berms. Dumbfuck.