TELL CONGRESS: Tax oil windfall profits and rebuild Gulf Coast wetlands!
I reached my tagging limit for a Facebook note, but please forward this to people with working hearts and heads. I hope that the rest of this day will go on like it has thus far: a large bullet dodged, a mythical End averted once more for my hometown of New Orleans. Hurricane Gustav made landfall today as a Category 1 hurricane, and for now the levees are holding. This is nothing short of miraculous. But my hometown is not at all safe, and in turn none of us are.
New Orleans is one of the world's largest and busiest ports, one of America's most vital points of entry. If you drive or ride in a vehicle, drink coffee, or use anything with steel or rubber in it, you owe New Orleans. The companies you pay to bring products to you and through New Orleans have changed the shape of the Mississippi River. Coupled with offshore oil drilling, the natural wetlands that protect my hometown from the most drastic effects of even the worst hurricanes are being quickly eradicated. A football field-sized chunk disappears from the Louisiana coast every 35 minutes, and just think: you've never been asked to do anything to stop it. This natural barrier keeps your gasoline affordable. It keeps your imported agriculture and clothes cheap. It literally safeguards the amazing American quality of life that all of us enjoy.
Since the 1930s over 2000 square miles of Gulf Coast wetlands have been eradicated by offshore drilling, sediment diversion upriver, and Army Corps of Engineers meddling that leave today's New Orleans incalculably less protected against Nature's wrath. To say nothing of those managing the man-made systems that "protect" us otherwise. Hurricane Katrina made clear that those systems are faulty and inadequate. The Corps of Engineers even admitted it was at fault for the badly designed and constructed levees, but no one was ever held to account. That should scare you: wherever you are from or currently live, the Corps of Engineers manages something in a town you love, and by their own estimation (an internal investigation in 2007) it is vulnerable to failure as we speak.
How can we protect our way of life if we don't protect our infrastructure and environment; and how can we protect our infrastructure and environment if we allow others to exploit it? Oil and gas companies made profits last year that were literally unprecedented in human history. The toll that will exact upon our country and the Gulf region is equally grave, but in our current energy situation that is how we power our country.
Given that, I humbly ask all of you to implore your local Congressmen (wherever they are and whatever party - I mean ALL of your Congressmen!) to heavily tax windfall profits made by oil and natural gas companies, and immediately utilize those funds to restore the Gulf region's wetlands and coastline to a pre-1930 condition. There are myriad cost-effective and scientifically sound ways of doing this and people are paying attention again, but what has truly been lacking is political and economic capital. You must understand that your way of life, and the cheapness of quality products that you enjoy depends on safeguarding New Orleans and its port indefinitely. This is impossible in a Gulf Coast region without wetland protection.
A windfall profits tax aimed only at restoring the marshes would also protect Big Oil's investments in the region. It would keep your gas as relatively affordable as it is, and likely save you much tax money over time. For you conservatives, a windfall profits tax used in this way would not be a punishment against oil companies but rather a tool to help them protect vested time and energy, while also protecting the people put at risk by their work. But that says nothing of the principle: this is an amazing American city that deserves adequate protection like any other, and has NEVER received it from its government.
This could be a short-term tax with extraordinary long-term gains for Louisiana and America, moreso than any man-made levee will ever achieve. Over time, restored wetlands would also avert (in fact reverse) the accelerated sinking of New Orleans due to global climate change. Again, you may not know this, but it is not "nature" that is making New Orleans subside. And sadly unlike you and I, the wetlands will not have a vote this November. They do not have a Senator or a Representative, or a highly-funded lobbyist friend. They are not buzz worthy, and they will never get their own MTV show about their bicurious amorous exploits. This is why they and I need you to speak up.
Speak out for me, for yourselves, and on behalf of America itself. If we citizens are so brutal and lazy that we look the other way as our lifestyle puts cities and states at risk, we truly are doomed in a time of climate change. If you enjoy the quality of life that being American brings, you have the obligation to protect the people on whose backs it is made. We have work safety standards and child labor laws because it is simply the right thing to do - restoring the infrastructure and wetlands of the Gulf Coast is philosophically no different. What happens after today will foretell what kind of nation we want to be, and if that nation will sustain itself. Gustav was kind, but many storms are not. If the Gulf Coast has fully restored wetlands, New Orleans will have hope for a long-term future. As will our country.
My best to all of you. These resources will direct you to online or physical ways of contacting your local Congressmen.
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
-- Seth
New Orleans is one of the world's largest and busiest ports, one of America's most vital points of entry. If you drive or ride in a vehicle, drink coffee, or use anything with steel or rubber in it, you owe New Orleans. The companies you pay to bring products to you and through New Orleans have changed the shape of the Mississippi River. Coupled with offshore oil drilling, the natural wetlands that protect my hometown from the most drastic effects of even the worst hurricanes are being quickly eradicated. A football field-sized chunk disappears from the Louisiana coast every 35 minutes, and just think: you've never been asked to do anything to stop it. This natural barrier keeps your gasoline affordable. It keeps your imported agriculture and clothes cheap. It literally safeguards the amazing American quality of life that all of us enjoy.
Since the 1930s over 2000 square miles of Gulf Coast wetlands have been eradicated by offshore drilling, sediment diversion upriver, and Army Corps of Engineers meddling that leave today's New Orleans incalculably less protected against Nature's wrath. To say nothing of those managing the man-made systems that "protect" us otherwise. Hurricane Katrina made clear that those systems are faulty and inadequate. The Corps of Engineers even admitted it was at fault for the badly designed and constructed levees, but no one was ever held to account. That should scare you: wherever you are from or currently live, the Corps of Engineers manages something in a town you love, and by their own estimation (an internal investigation in 2007) it is vulnerable to failure as we speak.
How can we protect our way of life if we don't protect our infrastructure and environment; and how can we protect our infrastructure and environment if we allow others to exploit it? Oil and gas companies made profits last year that were literally unprecedented in human history. The toll that will exact upon our country and the Gulf region is equally grave, but in our current energy situation that is how we power our country.
Given that, I humbly ask all of you to implore your local Congressmen (wherever they are and whatever party - I mean ALL of your Congressmen!) to heavily tax windfall profits made by oil and natural gas companies, and immediately utilize those funds to restore the Gulf region's wetlands and coastline to a pre-1930 condition. There are myriad cost-effective and scientifically sound ways of doing this and people are paying attention again, but what has truly been lacking is political and economic capital. You must understand that your way of life, and the cheapness of quality products that you enjoy depends on safeguarding New Orleans and its port indefinitely. This is impossible in a Gulf Coast region without wetland protection.
A windfall profits tax aimed only at restoring the marshes would also protect Big Oil's investments in the region. It would keep your gas as relatively affordable as it is, and likely save you much tax money over time. For you conservatives, a windfall profits tax used in this way would not be a punishment against oil companies but rather a tool to help them protect vested time and energy, while also protecting the people put at risk by their work. But that says nothing of the principle: this is an amazing American city that deserves adequate protection like any other, and has NEVER received it from its government.
This could be a short-term tax with extraordinary long-term gains for Louisiana and America, moreso than any man-made levee will ever achieve. Over time, restored wetlands would also avert (in fact reverse) the accelerated sinking of New Orleans due to global climate change. Again, you may not know this, but it is not "nature" that is making New Orleans subside. And sadly unlike you and I, the wetlands will not have a vote this November. They do not have a Senator or a Representative, or a highly-funded lobbyist friend. They are not buzz worthy, and they will never get their own MTV show about their bicurious amorous exploits. This is why they and I need you to speak up.
Speak out for me, for yourselves, and on behalf of America itself. If we citizens are so brutal and lazy that we look the other way as our lifestyle puts cities and states at risk, we truly are doomed in a time of climate change. If you enjoy the quality of life that being American brings, you have the obligation to protect the people on whose backs it is made. We have work safety standards and child labor laws because it is simply the right thing to do - restoring the infrastructure and wetlands of the Gulf Coast is philosophically no different. What happens after today will foretell what kind of nation we want to be, and if that nation will sustain itself. Gustav was kind, but many storms are not. If the Gulf Coast has fully restored wetlands, New Orleans will have hope for a long-term future. As will our country.
My best to all of you. These resources will direct you to online or physical ways of contacting your local Congressmen.
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
-- Seth