I know there is an attempt to "sound reasonable", when I hear Aaron Viles with Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), state we will never stop offshore drilling. GRN does not advocate for ending deep water offshore drilling.
This discussion took place at the Gillepsie Memorial Breakfast in New Orleans this past Saturday June 12th, where Aaron Viles, campaign director for Gulf Restoration Network spoke. GRN is the largest environmental non-profit in New Orleans, so it is useful to pay attention to their stances.
Mr. Viles admitted during his talk GRN has never been able to prevent a single permit from being granted by the state of Louisiana to the oil industry for oil infrastructure in our wetlands. This infrastructure is destroying our wetlands, causing massive salt water intrusion and destruction. Isn't it time for consideration of a different approach? In his pragmatic and practical approach, GRN has reasoned itself into a dangerous corner. Lowering the bar for environmental activists, GRN attempts to negotiate with polluters eye-level, rather than supporting solid principles and demands that would actually protect our environment, such as ending offshore drilling.
Mr. Viles also stated a need for caution, that we have to be careful when stopping or slowing down drilling to check for important safety issues. He was addressing the concerns of folks at the breakfast who opposed the 6 month moratorium. GRN however, does publicly support the 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling.
There were also Sierra Club members, and well-intentioned folks at the breakfast, speaking against the 6 month moratorium on deep well drilling, all sounding reasonable in their caution about the effects of the moratorium on our economy.
Everyone is well aware by now how Louisiana politicians are screaming about the 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling, and the effects on our economy. Another apocalypse is predicted, alongside the oily one we are currently experiencing.
The first, and obvious response to the "cautionary" environmentalists is that our failure to adequately protect our natural and renewable resources will result in a long-term devastation to the economies of the four states on the Gulf coast impacted by the BP oil disaster: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Long past the moratorium is ended on deep water drilling, and I for one want it to never end, our Gulf ecology will remain in devastated, recovery mode, with the attendant, economic devastation.
The sacrifice of our natural, renewable resources for jobs, is simply no longer acceptable. It would be equally absurd if folks were advocating that we can't stop the cutting down of the redwoods, or our cypress forests and northeastern rain forest, because we will lose jobs. If mining were shut down tomorrow, jobs would be lost, If we turned away from coal tomorrow, jobs would be lost.
It was never discussed how those jobs could potentially be replaced during the breakfast discussion, other than vague references to the creation of at least some "green" jobs. It is as if the long-term discussion of the national need for a massive public works program was never on the table. It has been on the table, for years now, advocated for by a variety of local and national groups, discussed on Democratic party blogs, radical blogs, economists of all stripes. Yet at no time was this possibility brought up by Mr. Viles, or anyone expressing concern for the loss of jobs as a result of the moratorium, or if offshore drilling were permanently shut down.
It is as if the national discussion for a massive public works program had never taken place. It is as if these environmentalists who attended the breakfast, and I know some of them personally, had never read about our discussion of the potential of public works on our C3/Hands off Iberville email list.
On Mr. Viles part, this lack of alternatives to offshore jobs, presented by the campaign director for the largest environmental nonprofit, does betray problematic ideological blinders that to some degree have their origin in fund raising for the group. Aaron said, after the meeting, that GRN does rely on "Rockefeller Philanthropists", who assist the organization in fund raising. Perhaps a publicly funded, massive public works program, to replace jobs that are endangering our natural resources, is just too risky a prospect for fund raising issues for the GRN.
The Rockefeller Foundation has its tendrils deep in New Orleans since Katrina, publicly advocating for, and funding support for the drastic downsizing and "mixed-income" redevelopment of public housing. Our 19,000+ homeless is a result of the destruction of public housing and failure to rebuild our private stock of housing in a timely manner.
The failure of such policies as advocated by the Rockefeller Foundation should be a cautionary tale for those who financially support GRN. Despite GRN, despite Rockefeller support, or because of it, we are now facing the potential destruction of our Gulf ecological system.
It is reasonable to assume that a great many folks who lend support to GRN, also support offshore drilling. My father is one recent addition to that number. In a door to door GRN campaign, he paid for membership recently. I also know he supports offshore drilling.
It is obvious we cannot expect leadership from GRN on the issue of replacing "dirty" jobs with sufficient numbers of green or public works jobs in order to shut down offshore drilling. That kind of ideological leadership will have to come from the people, right here in Louisiana who understand the need now to put our environmental health above and beyond the oil industry. It will also come from elsewhere in the United States, and already is, as a healthy 60%, I heard in one recent poll, no longer supports offshore drilling. That is why Obama won't lift the moratorium before it expires; he is responding to the largest numbers of his constituency.
Here is a straightforward and basic position for consideration: end offshore drilling now, and immediately begin the implementation of a massive, public works program to replace those jobs, bioremediate and rebuild our wetlands and coast, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure in this country, and create true economic recovery for the United States, and possibly the world. The offshore industry will not solve, and hasn't solved, our economic woes. A massive public works program would.
To continue with support for offshore drilling, at a time when we are faced with an ecological catastrophe that could possibly last for generations that will impact our children and grandchildren, is irresponsible. The anguished cries of innocent birds covered with oil can't be forgotten. The rotting carcasses of dead dolphins filled with oil can't be forgotten. What will become of whole communities who can no longer sustain themselves from wetland estuaries, no longer feed themselves? We must be the change that we are demanding. Public works now to put these folks to work rebuilding our wetlands, cleaning our coast and and rebuilding our infrastructure.
Elizabeth Cook
GRN's position on the moratorium:
http://www.healthygulf.org/201006041338/blog/bp-s-oil-drilling-disaster-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/will-louisiana-politicians-ever-learn
Funding sources for GRN:
http://www.healthygulf.org/who-we-are/about-us/funding-sources
Rockefeller's involvement in New Orleans:
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/who-we-are/what-we-re-learning/rebuilding-new-orleans
Rockefeller Foundation support for the drastic downsizing and mixed-income redevelopment of public housing:
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/press-releases/rockefeller-foundation-provide-2-2
The Rockefeller Foundation Redevelopment Fellowships will build upon the Center’s national program and adapt it for work specific to New Orleans. To implement the New Orleans program, the Center is collaborating with the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans and Nancy Montoya, the New Orleans-based Community Development Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who will serve as the fellowship program’s local liaison.
The Center expects to recruit 15 fellows for new jobs with participating organizations; staff employees may also be nominated for fellowships by their current organizations. Participating employers will be organizations already playing major roles in the implementation of public/private redevelopment projects. These include for-profit and non-profit development organizations, government agencies, financial institutions investing in affordable and mixed-income housing and other firms directly involved in the redevelopment process. In addition to facilitating job placements, the fellowship program will offer specialized classroom training, national site visits, and professional development and network-building activities to the fellows and other redevelopment professionals working in the New Orleans region.
Organizations participating in the fellowship program include:
• City of New Orleans Office of Recovery Management
• New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative
• AFL-CIO Investment Trust
• Columbia Residential
• Community Development Capital
• Enterprise Community Partners
• Enterprise Homes
• Gulf Coast Housing Partnership
• Michael’s Development Company
• Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater New Orleans
• New Orleans Redevelopment Authority
• Providence Community Housing
• Unity New Orleans
• Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans
This discussion took place at the Gillepsie Memorial Breakfast in New Orleans this past Saturday June 12th, where Aaron Viles, campaign director for Gulf Restoration Network spoke. GRN is the largest environmental non-profit in New Orleans, so it is useful to pay attention to their stances.
Mr. Viles admitted during his talk GRN has never been able to prevent a single permit from being granted by the state of Louisiana to the oil industry for oil infrastructure in our wetlands. This infrastructure is destroying our wetlands, causing massive salt water intrusion and destruction. Isn't it time for consideration of a different approach? In his pragmatic and practical approach, GRN has reasoned itself into a dangerous corner. Lowering the bar for environmental activists, GRN attempts to negotiate with polluters eye-level, rather than supporting solid principles and demands that would actually protect our environment, such as ending offshore drilling.
Mr. Viles also stated a need for caution, that we have to be careful when stopping or slowing down drilling to check for important safety issues. He was addressing the concerns of folks at the breakfast who opposed the 6 month moratorium. GRN however, does publicly support the 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling.
There were also Sierra Club members, and well-intentioned folks at the breakfast, speaking against the 6 month moratorium on deep well drilling, all sounding reasonable in their caution about the effects of the moratorium on our economy.
Everyone is well aware by now how Louisiana politicians are screaming about the 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling, and the effects on our economy. Another apocalypse is predicted, alongside the oily one we are currently experiencing.
The first, and obvious response to the "cautionary" environmentalists is that our failure to adequately protect our natural and renewable resources will result in a long-term devastation to the economies of the four states on the Gulf coast impacted by the BP oil disaster: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Long past the moratorium is ended on deep water drilling, and I for one want it to never end, our Gulf ecology will remain in devastated, recovery mode, with the attendant, economic devastation.
The sacrifice of our natural, renewable resources for jobs, is simply no longer acceptable. It would be equally absurd if folks were advocating that we can't stop the cutting down of the redwoods, or our cypress forests and northeastern rain forest, because we will lose jobs. If mining were shut down tomorrow, jobs would be lost, If we turned away from coal tomorrow, jobs would be lost.
It was never discussed how those jobs could potentially be replaced during the breakfast discussion, other than vague references to the creation of at least some "green" jobs. It is as if the long-term discussion of the national need for a massive public works program was never on the table. It has been on the table, for years now, advocated for by a variety of local and national groups, discussed on Democratic party blogs, radical blogs, economists of all stripes. Yet at no time was this possibility brought up by Mr. Viles, or anyone expressing concern for the loss of jobs as a result of the moratorium, or if offshore drilling were permanently shut down.
It is as if the national discussion for a massive public works program had never taken place. It is as if these environmentalists who attended the breakfast, and I know some of them personally, had never read about our discussion of the potential of public works on our C3/Hands off Iberville email list.
On Mr. Viles part, this lack of alternatives to offshore jobs, presented by the campaign director for the largest environmental nonprofit, does betray problematic ideological blinders that to some degree have their origin in fund raising for the group. Aaron said, after the meeting, that GRN does rely on "Rockefeller Philanthropists", who assist the organization in fund raising. Perhaps a publicly funded, massive public works program, to replace jobs that are endangering our natural resources, is just too risky a prospect for fund raising issues for the GRN.
The Rockefeller Foundation has its tendrils deep in New Orleans since Katrina, publicly advocating for, and funding support for the drastic downsizing and "mixed-income" redevelopment of public housing. Our 19,000+ homeless is a result of the destruction of public housing and failure to rebuild our private stock of housing in a timely manner.
The failure of such policies as advocated by the Rockefeller Foundation should be a cautionary tale for those who financially support GRN. Despite GRN, despite Rockefeller support, or because of it, we are now facing the potential destruction of our Gulf ecological system.
It is reasonable to assume that a great many folks who lend support to GRN, also support offshore drilling. My father is one recent addition to that number. In a door to door GRN campaign, he paid for membership recently. I also know he supports offshore drilling.
It is obvious we cannot expect leadership from GRN on the issue of replacing "dirty" jobs with sufficient numbers of green or public works jobs in order to shut down offshore drilling. That kind of ideological leadership will have to come from the people, right here in Louisiana who understand the need now to put our environmental health above and beyond the oil industry. It will also come from elsewhere in the United States, and already is, as a healthy 60%, I heard in one recent poll, no longer supports offshore drilling. That is why Obama won't lift the moratorium before it expires; he is responding to the largest numbers of his constituency.
Here is a straightforward and basic position for consideration: end offshore drilling now, and immediately begin the implementation of a massive, public works program to replace those jobs, bioremediate and rebuild our wetlands and coast, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure in this country, and create true economic recovery for the United States, and possibly the world. The offshore industry will not solve, and hasn't solved, our economic woes. A massive public works program would.
To continue with support for offshore drilling, at a time when we are faced with an ecological catastrophe that could possibly last for generations that will impact our children and grandchildren, is irresponsible. The anguished cries of innocent birds covered with oil can't be forgotten. The rotting carcasses of dead dolphins filled with oil can't be forgotten. What will become of whole communities who can no longer sustain themselves from wetland estuaries, no longer feed themselves? We must be the change that we are demanding. Public works now to put these folks to work rebuilding our wetlands, cleaning our coast and and rebuilding our infrastructure.
Elizabeth Cook
GRN's position on the moratorium:
http://www.healthygulf.org/201006041338/blog/bp-s-oil-drilling-disaster-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/will-louisiana-politicians-ever-learn
Funding sources for GRN:
http://www.healthygulf.org/who-we-are/about-us/funding-sources
Rockefeller's involvement in New Orleans:
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/who-we-are/what-we-re-learning/rebuilding-new-orleans
Rockefeller Foundation support for the drastic downsizing and mixed-income redevelopment of public housing:
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/press-releases/rockefeller-foundation-provide-2-2
The Rockefeller Foundation Redevelopment Fellowships will build upon the Center’s national program and adapt it for work specific to New Orleans. To implement the New Orleans program, the Center is collaborating with the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans and Nancy Montoya, the New Orleans-based Community Development Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who will serve as the fellowship program’s local liaison.
The Center expects to recruit 15 fellows for new jobs with participating organizations; staff employees may also be nominated for fellowships by their current organizations. Participating employers will be organizations already playing major roles in the implementation of public/private redevelopment projects. These include for-profit and non-profit development organizations, government agencies, financial institutions investing in affordable and mixed-income housing and other firms directly involved in the redevelopment process. In addition to facilitating job placements, the fellowship program will offer specialized classroom training, national site visits, and professional development and network-building activities to the fellows and other redevelopment professionals working in the New Orleans region.
Organizations participating in the fellowship program include:
• City of New Orleans Office of Recovery Management
• New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative
• AFL-CIO Investment Trust
• Columbia Residential
• Community Development Capital
• Enterprise Community Partners
• Enterprise Homes
• Gulf Coast Housing Partnership
• Michael’s Development Company
• Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater New Orleans
• New Orleans Redevelopment Authority
• Providence Community Housing
• Unity New Orleans
• Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans
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