CBD - Yesterday afternoon, a school of Kingfish descended upon the Roosevelt Hotel. Mimicking Huey P. Long, dozens donned suspenders, straw boater hats, and blazers as part of a flashmob cum protest organized by environmental activists, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Andrew Vaught, an organizer, explained, “Huey P. stood up for the little guy, and that’s what we need now.” Specifically, the group focused on Long’s taxation of the oil industry.

SoLa's mix of offshore men, fishermen, and eco-activists makes offshore drilling a touchy topic. Opinions aside, recent reports show that new drilling is decidedly down. St. Tammany is all over a new report from the Gulf Permit Index, and the numbers are not (or are, depending on your view) encouraging.

Deepwater permits have dropped from 5.8 a month to 5 a month issued, a 14% decrease. Shallow water permits have dropped from 7.1 to 6 issued monthly. In addition, shallow water permits which historically averaged 61 days to approve, now average 110. The 74.3% average approval rate has now fallen to 34% 

A search for 10 missing workers is underway in the Gulf of Mexico this afternoon. Four of the men are reportedly from Louisiana, including one from Houma and three from New Iberia, KATC reports. The workers were last accounted for during an evacuation of the Trinity II adjacent the Southern Yucatan Peninsula. Pemex, the Mexican national oil company, has lent boats to the search. GeoKinetics has promised a statement, and NoDef is standing by.

For the five companies operating the M/V Americana cargo Acship, the magic pipe made life easier. While floating down the Mississippi in December of last year, crews aboard the vessel used the tool to bypass equipment that kept oil, "oily waste," and sludge from getting into the River. By the time the ship got to the Port of New Orleans, it even made a giant streak of oil appear out of thin air. The pipe's success, however, was short lived. Thanks to crew members who produced proof that the toxic evidence was destroyed, the five companies won't be able to ship in the U.S. for five years, and they'll have to pay $1 million in fines. The Cypress times has the full story. Abracadabra!

So, Billy Nungesser wasn't possessed by an alien lifeform that made his mind manifest more oil after all. The rapidly spreading oil off the coast of Grand Isle leaked from a well owned by Houston-based Anglo Suisse Offshore Partners. The company was trying to plug the well, which has been out of commission for some time now, and expressed alleged "surprise" that the thing could still cough up oil. Maybe they shouldn't have plugged it after all!

In February, Grand Isle is supposed to start looking a little more life-like. Birds and tourists are scheduled to make their annual flock to the Jefferson Parish barrier island to seek refuge before the their natural habitat in the North comes back to life.

To clear the way, BP and town officials hoped to have the beaches cleaned by Feb. 1.  But there's a potential stain that seems destined to throw a wrench in those plans.

Sniffing sardines aside, we have to assume that The Powers That Be have been doing some serious checking up on the seafood being brought out of the Gulf. But so far nobody has been doing anything about the highly unknown chemicals used to attack the spill. I say unknown but of course they are known, to the people who invented them. The recipe used most extensively in the Gulf, the optimistically named Corexit, is kept secret under strict trade laws.

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I’ve lived in this state my entire life, which should afford to me a license to point out not only its finer attributes, but also those things which, as one of our finest local tunesmiths has penned, makes you crazy to live in this town.

Before Betsy, we had a white christmas; the next white christmas gave us Katrina. We had no snow this yule, but the World Meteorological Organization has given us something worse... the fifth major storm to fly over our oil filled gulf will be named "Earl." Get those generators ready, and keep your eye on the cones.

Is oil falling from the sky is that just the talk of that guy at the end of the bar with the denim jacket on, you know, that guy. The EPA says "no, impossibe," but others theorize that Corexit has caused a reaction making this all too real. CSM shows some convincing looking video. We miss the good ol' days when the worst that it rained, was men.