From the Washington Post:

“One of the most controversial tactics used against this summer’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill – the construction of large sand islands off the Louisiana coast – managed to stop only a “minuscule” amount of oil, according to a draft report from a presidential commission.

The report, released Thursday, is the latest in a series of findings from the staff of the commission empaneled to investigate the response to the spill.

In this report, staffers found that the “sand berms” – which Louisiana officials had touted as an essential shield against the spill - trapped only about 1,000 barrels of oil out of the approximately 5 million barrels spilled.

For that, the report said, BP paid about $220 million. That, together with $140 million that BP has committed to provide, amounts to one-third of all the money the oil company paid to federal or state governments to help respond to the spill.”

This is devastating news for Republican Governor Bobby Jindal who ordered the Berms built over the rejections of scientists. In an open letter dated July 22, 2010, almost two dozen coastal scientists from Louisiana and around the country urged the federal government to halt the construction of sand berms in the gulf, calling the project “ineffective in the fight against the oil and a waste of resources that could have heavy environmental consequences”.

The opening paragraph of the letter reads as follows:

“As BP appears close to shutting off the flow of oil, we believe that it is also time to shut off the flow of funding and permitting for the large-scale re-engineering of the Gulf Coast,” the letter states. “If this is not done, environmental damage resulting from ill-conceived, poorly reviewed coastal engineering may become an additional and unnecessary byproduct of the spill.” You can see the rest of the letter here

In its report on the Sand Berms, the commission, appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the spill, called the project “underwhelmingly effective, overwhelmingly expensive.” Proof positive that GOP leadership calls for “Washington spending” might be more effective if they took some of the advice of experts prior to making blunderous decisions that cost taxpayers $220 Million.