Leadership and Crisis, by Gov. Bobby Jindal: on Environment


Barack Obama: Promised that anyone losing job in spill would get BP check

I told the president that the oil moratorium amounted to a second man-made disaster. And my message was simple: Louisianans shouldn't lose their jobs because the federal government can't do its job. Our belief is that federal officials should spend their energies on getting serious about more rigorous oversight and inspection of oil rigs rather than punishing workers. Louisianans, of all people, don't want to see another drop of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico or another tragic loss of life.

The president went on to assure me that anyone who lost their job would get a check from BP. When I explained that BP might not write them checks because it was the federal government that imposed the moratorium, the president said, "Well, if BP won't pay them, they can file for unemployment." I was amazed by the level of disconnect. The people of Louisiana want to work, not collect unemployment or BP checks.

Source: Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal, p. 21-22 Nov 15, 2010

Bobby Jindal: Too-big feds failed on BP oil spill just like on Katrina

During the oil spill some critics said that I was being hypocritical because I believed in limited government and was also demanding more federal assistance. But they miss the point entirely. I'm not an anarchist. I believe government has a role--and at its most basic level the role of government is to protect life, liberty, and property. Dealing with a disaster like the oil spill certainly fits the job description. I believe that part of the reason the federal government failed to respond effectively to the oil spill (and for that matter, five years earlier during Hurricane Katrina) is precisely because government has become too big.

The federal government's response to the oil spill was lackadaisical from the start. Shortly after the oil well blew, we asked federal authorities how they were going to prioritize and deploy resources to protect our shoreline. We grew frustrated when they would not adjust their plans to respond adequately to a crisis of this magnitude.

Source: Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal, p. 4 Nov 15, 2010

Bobby Jindal: Feds took weeks to build sand berms needed for BP spill

On fighting the BP oil spill: Time and time again, land barriers stopped the oil that got past the skimmers and boom and served as our last line of defense to protect our wetlands. We knew there were no silver bullets to magically stop the oil, but it was important to have multiple lines of defense rather than relying on one tactic alone. So in early May we submitted a proposal to build sand berms to protect our state so that we could fight the oil miles away from our wetlands. We waited. And waited. The federal government refused to give us a timely answer. We heard nothing for weeks, even though sand berms are recognized as proven oil spill response technique by the US Coast Guard. We went ahead and built one berm on our own to demonstrate its effectiveness, and saw it repeatedly prevent oil from entering our wetlands. It was weeks later that the federal government finally decided to make BP pay for all six segments. Of course, by that point, more than 100 miles of shoreline had been oiled.
Source: Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal, p. 6-7 Nov 15, 2010

Bobby Jindal: Faith-based groups moved faster than feds during Katrina

A sheriff in my district had called federal offices to ask for Katrina assistance and was told he would have to email his request. The bureaucrat was just following procedure, you see, to have a record of the request. When the sheriff mentioned that he, like the rest of his town, had no electricity, the bureaucrat suggested he call someone who could email the details--and be sure to include the part about not being able to email in the email. Almost every other official around the table told a similar story of the red tape maze.

In many cases, charities, faith-based groups, and not-for-profit organizations move faster and are more flexible than federal programs. Don't get me wrong--there is a role for government, which has to build those levees and otherwise ensure our basic safety. And we must acknowledge that the National Guard responded to Katrina with stunning courage, as did the Coast Guard, which is estimated to have rescues 33,000 people. But FEMA's centralized model simply didn't work.

Source: Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal, p.122-124 Nov 15, 2010

Steven Chu: OpEd: Nobel Prize does not help keep BP oil spill away

A big part of the problem with the federal response was that the administration was overly optimistic and too willing to trust the so-called experts. They believed that the elite could fix everything. It struck me how often the president mentioned that his secretary of energy, Steven Chu, had won the Nobel Prize. Good for him. But just how exactly was this medal going to fix the problem, cap the well, and keep the oil off the coastline?

The press noticed that the White House was deferential to BP and their alleged expertise from the beginning. They basically believed what BP executives were telling them. I think President Obama figured that we just needed to get all the smart people in a room (that would be easy, since most reside in Washington) and then they would fix the problem. He trusted the bureaucrats--both corporate and federal. He hadn't been in government long enough to know that you have to be skeptical. It was a pattern evident from the beginning, one that was repeated again and again.

Source: Leadership and Crisis, by Bobby Jindal, p. 8 Nov 15, 2010

  • The above quotations are from Leadership and Crisis,
    by Bobby Jindal.
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Candidates and political leaders on Environment:

Retiring Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retiring House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retiring House as of Jan. 2015::
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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