Beach Peanuts

While Most Talked, He Took Action Against Oil Drilling

(Note: In May of 2010, not long after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I met and interviewed the founder of Hands Across The Sand, Dave Rauschkolb, in Seaside, FL. I wrote about Rauschkolb and the story behind what inspired his organization on my original blog site. This weekend begins Hands Across The Sand's fourth year holding what are now global events in protest of offshore oil drilling, (Locate a local event near you here.) and in honor of that I'm re-posting my original piece on Rauschkolb below.)

Dave Rauschkolb, Founder of “Hands Across The Sand”

(Photo: Martha Jackovics)

May 21, 2010

It’s been over a month since the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11, injured many others and caused the still gushing oil “spill” that threatens to devastate wildlife, along with the fishing and tourism industry in Florida.

Aside from a lot of political posturing in the past over the issue of oil drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico, not much was done about it beyond talk.

What did it take to get people’s attention? Probably the fact that most recent evidence places the oil plumes in the “loop current” in the Gulf, which will eventually carry the oil into the Florida Keys and then on around South Florida, into the Atlantic where most say it will likely land on beaches in Palm Beach County first.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to head up to the Florida Panhandle where I met people who live and work where, at the time, most thought the oil was headed next. I talked to people whose entire livelihoods were, and still are at stake.

One of those people I met was a man who didn’t just talk about it. He actually did something about it, and he did it long before the BP disaster unfolded.

Last summer, the Florida House passed bill #1219 which lifted the ban on near shore oil drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico, which allowed drilling to take place as close as ten miles off the coast of Florida. The bill first came to the attention of restaurant owner Dave Rauschkolb in Seaside, FL during a meet and greet at his restaurant with Florida House candidate David Pleat. Rauschkolb said that Pleat explained in layman’s terms what actually was proposed in the bill.

“What they were really asking for was carte blanche to give them a free ticket to drill anywhere they wanted three to ten miles off shore and that would also give the county jurisdiction from the waterline to three miles. The county said they could run pipelines wherever they wanted” Rauschkolb explains. “I was knocked back on my heels.”

At the end of Pleat’s explanation Rauschkolb “got this flash of an idea” that went beyond merely writing to legislators in opposition.

“Earlier I had said “we need to draw a line in the sand over this” and that kept running through my head. I looked at my wife and I said “I know what we can do.” I got this simple idea to have Floridians go to the beaches, join hands and create human lines in the sand to protest this legislation and try to convince legislators to drop this proposal.”

Rauschkolb’s ”flash of an idea” became a now familiar environmental awareness movement in Florida called “Hands Across The Sand.”

Hands Across the Sand is a movement made of people of all walks of life and crosses political affiliations. This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of our shoreline, our waterways, our tourism, our coastal military missions and our valuable properties. Let us share our knowledge, energies and passion for protecting all of the above from the devastating effects of oil drilling.

The idea was simple: Go to an event beach at the appointed time for one hour, rain or shine, join hands for ten minutes forming a “line in the sand” against oil drilling in coastal waters, and leave only footprints behind.

Rauschkolb went to work on the idea and designed a website, a 30 second radio commercial and a newspaper ad. The website was subsequently contributed by CYber SYtes in Panama City Beach, and posters were designed by local artists as well as T-Shirts that were given away free of charge.

Before long e-mails started to come in, and in just two months Rauschkolb says “we had 80 beaches organized from Jacksonville Beach to Miami and from Key West up to Pensacola.” Thousands of Floridians joined hands at he first “Hands Across The Sand” event that took place on February 13, 2010. “The largest group was in the Tampa, St. Petersburg Beach area with around 3,000 people. In Seaside, where Rauschkolb owns and operates his restaurant“Bud & Alley’s” there were 500.

Talking to Rauschkolb just over two weeks after the BP oil spill, he speaks about his frustration over President Obama’s stand on oil drilling. “ I knew the moment (Obama) said the word “Oil” in his State Of the Union address that he was throwing a bone to the Republicans. I counted how many times he said “clean energy,” 12 or 15 times. He mentioned oil once.” A strong signal in Rauschkolb’s mind that “this is something that is not near and dear to his heart.”

“To me after this spill, it’s going to be awfully difficult for those pro-drilling politicians in Florida to wash oil from their hands and I can’t imagine that (Florida Republicans) Dean Cannon and Mike Haridopolos will continue this folly and bring this legislation back to Floridians in the next session after the election. So I’m imploring them to stop it and stop it now. I’m hoping in the near future they will come out and say they’re dropping the legislation for good.”

“So many politicians like Sarah Palin and John Boehner are just drilling themselves a hole into oblivion in my opinion and I hope they stay down there. They can live with the oil as far as I’m concerned. I’ve lived here since 1970 and it’s one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been. I’ve made my life here, I’ve raised my family here and this is a very special place.  It’s the natural beauty of this place and the fact that 30% of our seafood comes from the Gulf.”

Rauschkolb becomes emotional at the thought of what could become of the community where he’s made his home for 24 years.

“Florida beaches are America’s beaches and they should hold them dear. I’m sorry, but drilling should not be occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, period. The Gulf should be a national park. It’s an abomination that our seafood industry is going to be destroyed for a very long time, and that entire coastal economies and ecosystems are about to be devastated. No one industry should have that kind power because of their mistakes.”

“Perhaps destiny will determine through this accident which way our country goes.”

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President Obama: "We Can’t Just Drill Our Way To Lower Gas Prices"

Speaking in Miami today, President Obama addressed Republicans who seek to capitalize on higher gas prices for their own political gain while they ignore the real facts and underestimate the intelligence of American voters.

Excerpts of the President's speech:

Now, some politicians always see this as a political opportunity.  You’re shocked, I know.  Last week, the lead of one news story said, “Gasoline prices are on the rise, and Republicans are licking their chops.”  Only in politics do people greet bad news so enthusiastically.  You pay more, and they’re licking their chops?  And you can bet that since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas.  I’ll save you the suspense:  Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling.  We heard the same thing in 2007, when I was running for President.  We hear the same thing every year.  We’ve heard the same thing for thirty years.

Well the American people aren’t stupid.  You know that’s not a plan – especially since we’re already drilling.  It’s a bumper sticker.  It’s not a strategy to solve our energy challenge.  It’s a strategy to get politicians through an election.  You know there are no quick fixes to this problem, and you know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.  If we’re going to take control of our energy future; if we’re going to avoid these gas price spikes down the line, then we need a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy – oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear, bio-fuels, and more.  We need to keep developing the technology that allows us to use less oil in our cars and trucks; in our buildings and plants.  That’s the strategy we’re pursuing, and that’s the only real solution to this challenge....]

[...A century of subsidies to the oil companies is long enough.  It’s time to end taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s never been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising.  This Congress needs to renew the clean energy tax credits that will lead to more jobs and less dependence on foreign oil.

The potential of a sustained, all-of-the-above energy strategy is all around us.  In 2008, Miami became the first major American city to power its city hall entirely with solar and renewable energy.  The modernization of your power grid so that it wastes less energy is one of the largest projects of its kind.  On a typical day, the wind turbine at the Miami-Dade Museum can meet about 10% of the energy needs in a South Florida home, and the largest wind producer in the country is over at Juno Beach.  Right here at this university, your work is helping manufacturers save millions of dollars in energy bills by making their facilities more efficient.

The role of the federal government isn’t to supplant this work or direct this research.  It’s to support these discoveries.  It’s to help businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.  After all, it was public research dollars, over the course of thirty years, which helped develop the technologies that companies are now using to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock.

The payoffs on these public investments don’t always come right away.  Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies will fail.  But as long as I’m President, I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.  I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because some politicians in Washington refused to make the same commitment here in America.  With or without this Congress, I’ll continue to do whatever I can to develop every source of American energy, so that our future isn’t controlled by events on the other side of the world.

Today, we’re taking a step that will make it easier for companies to save money by investing in energy solutions that have been proven here at the University of Miami – new lighting systems; advanced heating and cooling systems that can lower a company’s energy bills and make them more competitive.  We’re launching a program that will bring together the nation’s best scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to figure out how more cars can be powered by natural gas – a fuel that’s cleaner, cheaper, and more abundant than oil.  And we’re making new investments in the development of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance known as algae.  Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17% of the oil we import for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in America.  That means greater security.  That means lower costs.  That means more jobs.

None of these steps I’ve talked about today represent the silver bullet that will bring down gas prices tomorrow, or reduce our dependence on foreign oil overnight.  And that’s because there is no silver bullet.  There never has been.

But while we don’t have a silver bullet, what we do have in this country are limitless sources of energy, and a boundless supply of ingenuity and imagination that we can put to work developing that energy.

It’s the easiest thing in the world make phony election-year promises about lower gas prices.  What’s harder is to make a serious, sustained commitment to tackle a problem that may not be solved in one year or one term or even one decade.  But that’s the kind of commitment we need right now.  That’s what this moment requires.

Jeb Bush Poised To "Clean Up" In The Oil Spill Response Business

Tar balls that washed up on beaches in Alabama recently courtesy of Tropical Storm Lee have been linked to last year's BP oil gusher in the Gulf according to recent tests.

Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said the connection was found in preliminary tests performed by Auburn University, and additional tests will be conducted.

"We want to find out exactly what we are dealing with," Kennon said.

Tropical Storm Lee dumped tar balls in concentrated areas for miles along the Alabama coast. Some were nearly as large as baseballs and irregularly shaped, leading officials to believe they were broken off from large mats of tar submerged on the Gulf's sandy floor.

BP PLC said its assessments found light to moderate concentrations of tar balls in some areas. Additional cleanup workers were added at the request of area leaders, the company said, and teams will work additional hours to remove the tar balls.

There is also speculation that the tar balls may not just be remnants of last year's spill, but could be the result of new leaks from the Maconda well. BP denies those claims of a new leak.

New leak or not, the oil cleanup is far from over, and not surprisingly there's no loss of private companies poised to "clean up" not only all that oil, but big government contracts as well. Elected officials in Florida have made no secret that they may again be willing to offer up offshore drilling off the coast of Florida.

Recently Tea Party Wingnut and Presidential candidate, Republican Michele Bachmann tried to woo Florida voters with the idea that drilling in the Everglades was also a fantastic idea. Not one to pass up an opportunity to pander to the same Tea Nut crowd, Gov. Rick Scott also jumped on Bachmann's crazy new energy idea and said he might look into drilling there as well. He was forced to back-pedal on that soon after, but some aren't convinced we've heard the last of opening up the Everglades for drilling. Future oil drilling, and future disasters like the oil spill in the Gulf would provide a lot of work for private contractors seeking to "clean up" with big government contracts.

Speaking of big money, oil spills, and disasters in Florida, guess who's jumping into the disaster response business?

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is getting into the for-profit disaster response business. A veteran of emergency response operations -- having personally weathered Hurricane Andrew and then shepherded the state through 7 mega-hurricanes as governor -- Bush has joined forces with O'Brien's Response Management, an emergency planning company, according to a story in the Maritime Executive on its web site today.

According to the Maritime Executive's story, O'Brien's is a a wholly owned subsidiary of  SEACOR Holdings Inc. and joined forces with Bush's company, Old Rhodes Holdings LLC, to help the company expand into new markets. "O’Brien’s provides emergency planning, disaster response, preparedness consulting, crisis communications and regulatory compliance services to corporations and governments,'' the report says.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with one of the leading response organizations in the United States, backed by SEACOR’s global network,” Bush said. “Together we look forward to helping a broader array of organizations and communities become more resilient through preparation, response, communication and recovery.”

Leave it to Jeb Bush to join the rest of the family in the business of creating policies that prove disastrous, and finding a way to profit from them later in the private sector.

Hurricanes aren't the only disasters Bush is now poised to profit from. O'Brien's Response Management is a response management contractor to BP and is playing a significant role in the Gulf. 

From the company's website:

Without question, O'Brien's is the most well known name in response management in the oil and energy industry. Starting from the early days of the company, founder Jim O'Brien established a reputation for excellence in oil spill and industry incident response management.

Listed in the company overview of oil and energy projects:

A 24/7 Command Center in Slidell, Louisiana responds to over 1000 events per year 

That doesn't exactly square with oil industry claims of "safe drilling" in the Gulf if they respond to over 1,000 events per year.

There's more:

In 2010, as in most years previous, O'Brien's was the primary contractor and planner for the Spill of National Significance exercise--the national large scale oil spill exercise 

O'Brien's serves as the Spill Management Team for the majority of major exploration and production operators in North America

O'Brien's PIER system and communication services group have been involved in more large scale oil and energy crisis events than any other communication technology or team

They also claim they're used in responding to more oil and energy industry response events than any other response management system--many times over. Again, so much for all those "safe drilling" claims.

Not surprisingly, oil spills are big business. Just ask the experts at O'Brien's Response Management, and their brand new "for-profit disaster response" business partner Jeb Bush.

Better yet, ask their clients:

• BP
• Transocean
• ExxonMobil
• Marathon 
• Repsol
• ConocoPhillips
• Kinder Morgan
• Anadarko

Irene Is Gone But Hurricane Bachmann Still Threatens The Country And She's Moving South (UPDATED)

The Face Of The GOP: Be Afraid

(Updated Below)

A good friend who comes from Michele Bachmann's home state once told me this in response to a question about what exactly makes Bachmann tick:

"She really believes in what she says."

That's the scary part.

Hurricane Bachmann is making her way through Florida right now and she's shown that she's not above exploiting natural disasters to claw her way back to the top in the polls since her numbers fell after winning the straw poll in Iowa. Whether she believes in what she says or not, this statement of hers over the weekend deserves some much needed attention:

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

First of all, she said this while making a campaign speech/sermon at a mega-church, and the response was laughter. Mind you, this as Hurricane Irene was still unfolding and killing people in the process. Since videos of the statement surfaced (she made it twice during separate campaign stops) some have made the claim that she was joking.

Really? She was just joking....at the same moment that people were dying in the storm? (Bachmann "Humor" Update Below)

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the face of today's GOP. If you thought the Republican response to Katrina was a "joke" the next disaster will be a riot if the Republicans get back into the White House. Sadly we won't have to wait that long. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has said once again, as he did for tornado and earthquake aid earlier, that Republicans won’t allow emergency aid in the wake of Hurricane Irene unless Democrats meet GOP demands: dollar-for-dollar spending cuts elsewhere. Of course that probably translates to another attempt at safety net blackmail instead of cutting oil subsidies and asking the rich to pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us.

Hilarious.

That brings me to the second point. Hurricanes and earthquakes are God's way of telling politicians to cut back on spending? Really? I could have sworn they were God's way of punishing homosexuals? What about abortions? No matter though. Apparently God multi-tasks when handing out punishment, and Michele Bachmann has all of those wayward souls covered. She and the hubby "pray away the gay" (funding provided by Medicare) and counsel women against having abortions. Never mind that when those children grow up, President Bachmann would then rob them of affordable health care while lowering their wages if they're lucky enough to find employment, as she rakes in her family farm subsidies. (Subsidies aren't "socialism" if they go to Republicans and billionaires.) Isn't that, after all, what Jesus would do?

Back to the current disaster in the making. Potential President Bachmann's stand-up tour is moving South. After charming the silly socks off parishioners in Lutz, Bachmann moved on from getting heckled in Naples over her proposal to open up the Everglades to drilling "safely" while also proposing to kill the EPA, she's heading to Miami. No doubt she'll continue to push a Marco Rubio VP slot while she's there. (Good luck with that!) Maybe she can charm them as she did in Lutz with this line:

“You’re Cuban, yay!’’ Bachmann exclaimed in response to a question about Fidel Castro from 66-year-old retiree Gabriela Menendez, who has lived in the U.S. since 1961. “You made it out, yay! We’re glad that you’re here.’’

Maybe ask another senior citizen if they're "old enough to remember Ronald Reagan?" (Go ahead, scratch your head over that one for a moment. I'll wait.)

Whatever she says, I'm sure her views on God and natural disasters will be a big hit to those who still remember Hurricane Andrew and lived to tell the tale. 

They might be surprised to hear that they suffered the brunt of too much government spending back in 1992.

They may also be surprised to hear that if another one comes their way, praying for help may do them absolutely no good if President Bachmann or the Republicans are in charge.

UPDATE:

Bachmann confirmed that her comments on hurricanes and earthquakes were indeed jokes, and has responded to criticism of her natural disaster "humor."

From The Hill:

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) said Monday that her comments that a recent earthquake and Hurricane Irene were a message from God were a joke, Reuters reported.

“Of course I was being humorous when I said that. It would be absurd to think it was anything else,” Bachmann said at an event in Miami.

“I am a person who loves humor. I have a great sense of humor.”

It's "absurd" all right.

Thanks for clearing that up "Dr. Bachmann."