Is President Obama about to announce a plan to redirect the Mississippi River in order to save the Gulf Coast wetlands? Annie Lowery of the Washington Independent picked up this exchange between Anderson Cooper and historian Doug Brinkley.

[W]hen President Obama comes to Florida and Alabama and Mississippi, and that is holding BP responsible for the Natural Resource Damage Act, for the Oil Spill Response Act. And, by that, I mean BP is going to end up paying somewhere from $10 billion to $15 billion, maybe even $20 billion, because they’re going — one of the only ways to save the Louisiana wetlands is going to be — you know, the Mississippi River has been channelized for navigation.

Well, now the Mississippi River has to be redirected. It’s going to have to be flooded and sediment pumped into these marshlands to save it.

Brinkley claims this relates to the falling out between BP and the administration (aside from the whole Exxon-Valdez-sized-spill-every-five-days thing). Plus, the oil companies were responsible for wetlands destruction long before this spill happened. And now President Obama is going to fix it all by opening the floodgates and letting the Mississippi once again find its own way to the sea. Or something.

It's the kind of solution that might appeal to, well, everyone. Decisive, dramatic, HUGE... It would certainly put an end to complaints that Obama isn't doing enough -- he's moving rivers for Pete's sake! I wonder if it's true. According to Brinkley, we'll find out soon -- he claimed Obama is to announce it during this weekend's trip to the Gulf Coast. Stay tuned indeed...

Labels: energy, politics, pollution