An Exercise in Slow-Motion Urgency

Last post on this subject this week, I promise. The Times-Picayune's Mark Schliefstein reports on the visit of the White House Council on Environmental Quality's chairperson, Nancy Sutley, to New Orleans (a visit paired alongside the President's own). We are ten months into the administration, the facts about the degradation of Louisiana's coastal wetlands and the construction and design flaws in the levee "system" that disastrously failed in 2005 have all been well known and on the public record for some time, and here's what Chair Sutley said yesterday:

"For me, this is the start of a dialogue, the start of a partnership for the Obama administration," Sutley said, adding that there's "a real commitment on the part of the administration to see these processes through, to understand the science, to understand the priorities, and as I heard this morning, certainly the message of urgency is one I will take back with me to Washington."

Never too late to start up. There is, in line with this spirit of urgency, a "new" White House working group on issues of coastal restoration in Mississippi and Louisiana. Warp speed, baby. Whiplash time. But okay, let's start the stopwatch on this message of urgency...