why is bobby jindal getting excited now?

In 2006, Jindal sponsored the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (HR 4761), a bill to eliminate the moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling over the U.S. outer continental shelf. A poll taken while the bill was being debated, showed that 73% of the US public supported the measure. Jindal argues that 30-40% of oil reserves of the United States are near the Louisiana coast and increased drilling would reduce American dependence on foreign oil. This prompted the watchdog groups, Republicans for Environmental Protection as well as the nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters to rate him among the lowest in Congress in 2006. HR 4761 was replaced by S 3711 (known as the Domenici-Landrieu Fair Share Plan) which was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President George W. Bush.

but so far, jindal has pointed fingers at everyone but himself:

On May 2, Gov. Jindal requested that federal authorities and BP provide three million feet of absorbent boom, five million feet of hard boom and 30 'jack up' barges. Of that, less than 800,000 feet of hard boom has arrived - less than a fifth of the request. About 140,000 feet of that hard boom is sitting waiting for BP to tell contractors where to take it.

“It is clear we don’t have the resources we need to protect our coast, we need more boom, more skimmers, more vacuums, more jack-up barges that are still in short supply,” Jindal said today. “Let’s be clear, every day that this oil sits is one more day that more of our marsh dies.”

if he knew so much about what supplies would be needed, why didn't he stock up in advance? instead he expects the feds to respond instantly to his demands, as if they know what to do. it was exactly the other way round when he was running for governor and capitalized on the idea that the incumbent kathleen blanco was to blame for what went wrong after katrina.

what we need now is more and better environmentalism.

what we don't need is a series of hysterical self-righteous demands from somebody who until now has consistently advocated deep-water drilling.