The oil has stopped gushing and the media has gone on to cover other breaking stories.
Oh, there may be a couple of hundred million gallons of oil still floating around, but, well, whatever, if there’s not fresh video of birds dying, what’s the point of covering it?
Sadly, that is case of our here today / gone tomorrow media. But for the people who live along the Gulf Coast and many rely on tourism to help pay the bills, many experts say its going to take more than $20 billion to return things to the way they once were. (This is not including the obvious disaster tourists who want to go and see the actual oil washing up on the 
shores.)
A Washington Post story says that a recent meeting down in New Orleans estimates that the Road to Recovery — the actual name of the plan — will take more than three years and billions of dollars.
A group down on the Gulf has already asked BP for about $500 million to begin a campaign to lure tourists down south, we suspect that this coming winter there are going to be fabulous deals for tourists willing to actually see the Gulf of Mexico as the cleanup begins and people continue their lives — without cameras in their faces.
Our take: It’s a tragedy, but things are going to get better. Checking things out will be the first thing we do — and from there — we’ll let you know.
Now, about that shrimp shortage.
