Congressman Compares Gulf Coast Oil Spill To 'Chocolate Milk,' Says It Will 'Break Up Naturally'

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) suggested over the weekend that people shouldn't be "scared" about the Gulf Coast oil spill and in justifying his claim compared the massive slick to "chocolate milk."

On Saturday, Taylor flew over the oil spill in a Coast Guard plane and at first glance declared that the site was "not as bad" as he expected it to be.

The Sun Herald reports:

Taylor flew over the site of the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig Saturday along with Department of Marine Resources Director Bill Walker and Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama. [...]

"At the moment, it's not as bad as I thought it would be," he said, shortly after returning from the three-hour tour.

After observing the oil spill from 1,000 feet, Taylor said in an interview with Biloxi's WLOX-TV that what many feel is an environmental and economic catastrophe is not "Katrina" or "Armageddon," adding that the "chocolate milk looking spill" is beginning to "break up naturally":

What I want people to know is this isn't Katrina. This is not Armageddon. I did this for the Coast Guard many years ago. Yeah, it's bad. And it's terrible that there's a spill out there. But I would remind people that the oil is twenty miles from any marsh. [...]

That chocolate milk looking spill starts breaking up in smaller pieces... It is tending to break up naturally.

All of this despite the fact that the spill has tripled in size over the past few days.

WATCH: Mississippi Congressman Compares Gulf Coast Oil Spill To 'Chocolate Milk'

Comments

[hughster1]

05:13 PM on 05/17/2010

Now Representative Taylor has a new product for your kids:

http://www.topstoryweekly.com/2010/05/17/watch-got-oil-spill-from-top-story-weekly-episode-52-oil-and-greece-dont-mix/

[BMartinDC]

12:55 AM on 05/08/2010

Taylor is right and you are wrong. He said the oil-water emulsion looks like chocolate milk. The scientists say chocolate mousse. Whatever. The Gulf of Mexico breaks it down naturally.

Read about it in the National Geographic News:
Nature Fights Back Against Gulf Oil Spill:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100507-science-environment-gulf-mexico-oil-spill-cleanup-bacteria/

[Joe Longtin]

11:27 PM on 05/10/2010

Did you read the whole article, or just the part that concurs with your ideology?

FTA:
"As long as you've got a reasonably healthy system, then recovery of some sort can take place. The sad thing is that much of the Gulf is already severely degraded, and resilience is not what it used to be. Let's just hope we can back off with other pressures to allow recovery to take place."

"For instance, on the Mississippi coast—where smaller oil spills have washed ashore in the past—researchers have found oil as deep as 20 feet (about 6 meters), Stone said.

"If oil sinks into the soils of the Gulf's breadbasket—the marshes—there's nothing nature or humans can do to stop it, experts say—and that could present a toxic nightmare for small animals that live in the sediments and the larger creatures that eat them.

[galilei]

01:42 PM on 05/21/2010

I'll believe you and Taylor after you both back up your claims, and, you know, drink some.

[kunzler]

03:01 AM on 05/07/2010

I think they've started to believe their own lies.

[Blarg]

06:02 PM on 05/06/2010

I wonder if British Petroleum will sprinkle some of those little marshmallows on top for us. It's the charmingest environmental disaster ever!

Moms, your kids will love it!

[blueken]

03:03 PM on 05/06/2010

The oil spill is to choclate milk like napalm is to aloe vera. Nice try idiot.

[Miketou]

02:52 PM on 05/06/2010

I have lost patience with politicians who have low IQ scores. Is this guy delusional? If it's like chocolate milk, he should drink it to prove his point. Now Landreu in Louisiana wants to continue with drilling. If these idiots want to continue drilling, it's fine by me--as long as it's restricted to the Gulf Coast.

[kunzler]

03:04 AM on 05/07/2010

They are going to have to keep drilling because they won't have a fishing industry, or much of a tourist industry now.

[supergranny]

01:28 PM on 05/06/2010

Somebody send this stupid B*tch a homemade BP chocolate cake! This idiot speaks as though this is all part of the natural order of things.

[Jason Abdon]

12:41 PM on 05/06/2010

"Beneath the carefully constructed veneer of a blithering buffoon there lurks a blithering buffoon."

Boris Johnson

[oregonideas]

12:02 PM on 05/06/2010

Rep. Taylor simply must be dumber than a stump. I don't think the Gulf Coast community needs someone minimizing the impact of the oil release (it's far worse than a "spill", which, by definition, is at least finite.) Unless his district is inhabited by voters even dumber than he is, his tenure in Congress should be short indeed. Mr. Taylor proves that the GOP doesn't have the patent on stupidlity.

[Ned Delaney]

11:38 AM on 05/06/2010

Trust me, I'm a professional Congressman, and I have never accepted lobbying money from the oil industry.

[Shredder628]

09:35 AM on 05/06/2010

John Stewart did it right:

http://www.gotchamediablog.com/2010/05/daily-show-jon-stewart-presents-west.html

[Carlos Manuel]

09:19 AM on 05/06/2010

Warm it up and give this idiot a cup before bed

[Shredder628]

09:31 AM on 05/06/2010

dip his head in it and put a little swirl on top

[Osusuki]

09:12 AM on 05/06/2010

Just goes to show that even Democrats can suffer from the effects of inbreeding in Mississippi.

[hunrbunr]

10:25 AM on 05/06/2010

I do believe that inbreeding is non-partisan....unfortunately.

[pinkeyelemonade]

05:21 AM on 05/06/2010

So begin the promise to your local grade school that an oil tanker, used temporarily as shipping equipment for candy store cargo, dodged mud puddle, and tipped over, spilling marshmallow peep chicks, swedish fish, and more chocolate...covered otters!

[KatieHW]

03:08 AM on 05/06/2010

Word to all the trolls: We Dems can admit when we're sporting a moron. Here you go.

[KatieHW]

03:09 AM on 05/06/2010

Sorry--that was an insult to morons. (Sincerely sorry.)