House approves oil spill legislation

BP oil spill: A Louisiana tragedy
~Tim Gautreaux

2,400 square miles reopened for fishing, shrimping ~WWL

Will Louisiana's Anti-BP, Feds And Moratorium "Bomb"?~Jim Brown

Blacklash Grows Against BP Efforts to "Buy Up" Gulf scientists~Chris Kromm
~Van Heerden's gadfly role after Katrina won him fans in New Orleans, but his BP video this year -- which downplays the damage caused by the oil disaster -- has put him in the doghouse. In the video, van Heerden says that despite the "media perception out there that there's oil everywhere," in reality oil "has only come ashore in a few locations;" that marshes are doing fine thanks to their "dense roots;" and that the spilled oil itself is "very, very light" and "breaks down very, very rapidly." All of which could be debated by reasonable scientists, but is suspect coming from van Heerden given one crucial fact: He now works for Polaris Applied Sciences, a company contracted by BP -- a relationship which a growing chorus of scholars says not only puts his impartiality in question, but also symbolizes a growing threat to academic freedom when the insights of scholars are needed most.

Jindal: Oil spill damage not exaggerated~Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal joined incoming BP CEO Bob Dudley in rejecting the notion from an article appearing in a national publication that damage from the oil spill has been exaggerated.
Michael Grunwald, an environmental reporter from Time Magazine, spoke with scientists from Louisiana. The scientists (BP Spokescientist Ivor van Heerden) quoted in the article said the oil spill was not as catastrophic as some would have the rest of the country believe.