Georgia politics and Uncle John – Part 2 Throwback Thursday
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In a giveaway to Big Oil, the administration’s proposal to ease safety regulations on the industry that were adopted after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster is a mistake with potentially deadly consequences. At the same time, the administration gave another gift to oil companies by eliminating a tax they previously paid to clean up their own catastrophic oil spills.
Score two for Big Oil. The administration’s enthusiasm for rolling back environmental regulations has translated into a policy victory for the American Petroleum Institute, the leading lobbyist for U.S. oil and gas companies. The API writes the policy, and the administration applies it.
The API opposed the two offshore drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster that killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
The rules tightened controls on blowout preventers, devices that are intended to prevent explosions in undersea oil and gas wells. They also required that outside parties certify that the safety devices worked under extreme conditions.
Regular inspections might seem onerous to businesses big and small, but they are essential to keeping the public safe. St. Louisans saw last year what happens when businesses don’t comply with rigorous inspection schedules.
Four people died after a faulty high-pressure hot water tank in a building near Soulard exploded and crashed into a nearby business.
City regulators failed to close down the equipment, and the company failed to replace it or adequately repair it.
The director of the Interior Department’s safety bureau says that reducing the regulatory burden on industry will encourage increased domestic oil and gas production while maintaining high safety and environmental standards.
The nation’s worst environmental disasters came from lax regulation.
What’s behind the push for deregulation is the industry’s opposition to costly safety rules. Paring them back may spur domestic offshore drilling, but there are so many other environmental concerns with drilling in federal waters that Republican and Democratic governors in states along the east and west coasts oppose it.
They were outraged when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke exempted Florida with the flimsy reason that he liked Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
The administration also eliminated a 9 cents-a-barrel tax on companies selling oil in the United States, which generated an annual average of $500 million for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which was established in 1986 to make sure taxpayers weren’t left holding the bag in the aftermath of a catastrophe such as the Exxon Valdez spill. It’s easy to see that Big Oil has a friend in the White House.
Only a reckless leader would allow any industry to set its own regulatory policy.
President Donald Trump has shown little interest in the nation’s history of environmental disaster. As a result, he seems likely to repeat it. n 1962, John Elwin Sheffield, Jr., my uncle, ran for lieutenant governor. That summer, Daddy, Uncle Tom and Uncle John criss-crossed the state of Georgia putting up campaign posters. The campaign continued with a televised debate on WSB. The moderator was the late Ray Moore, of WSB TV in Atlanta. We gathered around the TV in Grandma Griffin’s kitchen and watched the debate.
Uncle John did not win the election. In a field of nine candidates, the top two vote getters were Peter Zack Geer and Lester Maddox. In September of 1962, there was a runoff between Geer and Maddox. Geer won the runoff and subsequently served with Gov. Carl Sanders.
UNCLE JOHN AND AUNT MELBA had three children who are, of course, my cousins. Susan, Betty and Johnny. In 1976 Susan got married and Uncle John hosted a fish fry for the family the day before the wedding. Mama said, “John, it sure is good of you to host us. This food is delicious.” And Uncle John said, “Shoot…there is nothing to do at a time like this but eat!”
Uncle John was always thinking about others and what he could do for them. In the late 1980’s Mama had hip surgery, here in Rome. There were some complications after surgery and she had to stay in the hospital longer than expected. Uncle John and Aunt Melba came to the hospital to see us. After a brief visit with Mama, they went straight to the house. Uncle John said to my daddy,
“Paul, where do you keep your lawn mower? I’m gonna cut the grass.” And he did. Then he got out the grill and we had hamburgers in the back yard. Uncle John excelled at being there for people, especially family. Everybody in the little south Georgia town of Quitman, where they lived, loved him.
John passed away in Quitman several years ago. At visitation, the funeral home was crowded with people. Uncle John really liked Cole Porter and so there was a Cole Porter CD playing all evening. Mama was a woman of few words and she didn’t really want to talk to people. So while I went around to see people, she sat in a corner and watched people. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was watching me as well.
The closed casket was draped with the U.S. flag, and there was a big wreath of flowers next to a red UGA folding chair. The wreath had a banner on it that said, “To our top Dawg. Love, Susan, Betty and Johnny.”
Placed throughout the funeral home there were several easels which held a lot of black and white pictures, mostly of my cousins and me, as well as all the rest of the extended family. I knew Mama would want to see those pictures so I went to get her.
“Mama,” I said. “You gotta come see all these pictures and the wreath.” She enjoyed seeing the pictures.
That night in the hotel room, Mama said, “Pam, I declare I wish I could do what you did at that funeral home today.” I said, “What did I do?” She said, “You worked that room like a politician.”
UNCLE JOHN’S FUNERAL was at First United Methodist Church in Quitman. Not surprisingly, the church was packed. At the end of the service, the congregation sang the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” There was not a dry eye in the house as we all knew the inference of that song was “Glory, Glory to Old Georgia,” the UGA fight song for uncle John, our top dawg.
JOHN ELWIN SHEFFIELD JR. World War II army veteran. UGA graduate. Businessman. Politician. Passionate about home and family and UGA football. When the caravan went across town to the cemetery, people stopped for us at every intersection. Utility workers on the roadside took off their hat in respect. I told you. Everybody in Quitman loved Uncle John. PAM WALKER Jim Powell of Young Harris