Governor: Media, not oil, is the problem

The BP oil spill is causing less damage to the state of Mississippi than the media, according to Gov. Haley Barbour.

"Well, the truth is, Chris, we have had virtually no oil," Barbour told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday.

"We have had a few tar balls but we have tar balls every year as a natural product of the Gulf of Mexico. Fifty thousand to 750,000 barrels of oil seep in the Gulf of Mexico through the floor every year. So tar balls are no big deal," said Barbour.

"The biggest negative impact for us has been the news coverage," the governor continued. "There has been no distinction between Grand Isle and Venice and the places in Louisiana that we feel so terrible for that have had oil washing up on them."

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I'm sure BP will be glad to hear this. This means they, nor the federal government will have to worry about spending any money on their beaches and marches when it does hit them.
And it will. It is hitting Florida now. What happens when the winds shift or when a tropical system comes along and blows it all up on the Governor's coast.

He is so worried about his tourist industry that I guess he has totally forgotten that the fishing industry in his state will be decimated.

reply to post by webpirate


.......does the Gulf really naturally seep that much oil? Seems like a terribly high number..

Anyways, you kinda forgot the main part of the story. The reason he says media is causing more damage is that it's chasing away all their tourist (and in Texas too) when their beaches are perfectly clean and have had no issues. They are basically being punished for a natural disaster that missed them.

reply to post by Rockpuck


Just because there isn't much oil on their beaches yet doesn't mean the water isn't contaminated. There's all that dispersant, the methane, dead critters...I know I personally wouldn't swim in the gulf right now and I sure wouldn't let any kids in it.

Apparently he has already forgotten about this report from him earlier this week:

The massive oil spill gushing from a blown-out wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has washed ashore on Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday and could wash ashore in Florida this weekend.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Tuesday that a two-mile long, three-feet wide strand of caramel-colored oil has been found on Petit Bois Island, a barrier island near the Mississippi-Alabama border.

The discovery means Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have all been hit by oil.

The governor described the caramel-colored substance as "not a liquid, not a solid," but as an emulsified compound, similar to the gooey consistency of a Milk Dud, CBS News reports.

It came ashore in the form of a ribbon of oil measuring 1 yard wide by 2 miles long and was undetected by survey boats until it hit land because the ribbon stayed about 2 feet beneath the surface in open water, according to the governor

www.cbsnews.com...

The beaches might not be black, but let's see the Governor go swim in the ocean. See what he finds just offshore and just under the surface....

reply to post by Rockpuck

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2000) — Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

But the oil isn't destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that's been going on for many thousands of years

Fascinating! .. I find this all very interesting, how much oil naturally leaks into the gulf of Mexico alone. Maybe it's because the oil is closer to the surface, since the Gulf was supposedly made by an asteroid impact, thousands of feet of soil and rock was displaced?

"On water, oil has this wonderful property of spreading out really thin," said Mitchell. "A gallon of oil can spread over a square mile very quickly." So what ends up on the surface is an incredibly thin slick, impossible to see with the human eye and harmless to marine animals.

Interesting fact.

When oil spreads out over water, surface tension causes it to act like a super-thin sheet of Saran Wrap, flattening down small waves on the ocean surface. To spot the oil slicks, EarthSat scientists use radar data from Canadian and European satellites. The oil slicks stand out in the radar image because they return less of the radar signal than the wavy surfaces.

"The number is twice the Exxon Valdez's spill per year, and that's a conservative estimate," said Mitchell.

www.sciencedaily.com...

.. of course that's over the course of an entire year.. this incident is a massive leak, centered in one location, with a very high volume. Perhaps it shouldn't be compared, but the Governor was right.. not typical for a Governor to be so spot on.

reply to post by apacheman


God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt, right? .. I mean you think the ocean was clean to begin with? All the crap we dump into it? Literally I mean, a lot of sewage gets dumped into the oceans. And if you want to talk deadly chemicals, farming run off alone polutes most of the coastal waters, tons of chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers and so on..

You are swimming in fish crap, bird crap, little kids (and probably every adult) who use the bathroom while in the ocean...

I don't think a few tar balls are going to kill you. And if they do, I apologize for my assumption.