As discussion picks up in wonder as to what in the world explains the Obama administration’s dithering about mitigating consequences from the Gulf oil spill, be aware that  earlier this week I sent Freedom of Information Act requests to four offices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, seeking “all records, documents, emails, internal communications, and other relevant covered materials addressing the issue of building, dredging for, or whether to permit the construction of barrier islands/barrier shoals off of Louisiana’s coast as requested by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, particularly though not exclusively the role ‘environmentalist’ groups played in these deliberations.”

Last week I had already filed with NOAA, EPA and the Coast Guard seeking information on apparent (according to information in the public domain) green group influence leading to the Obama administration’s odd refusal to execute its pre-approved plan-in-place to burn off the oil before the volatiles evaporate and the oil becomes too well mixed.

Both decisions inarguably allowed vast quantities of oil to reach the shores, and otherwise foul the environment and cause further economic harm — and provide more grist for a cynical administration and its political allies, who admittedly design their pushes around crises, and fundraising for green groups who never do so well as when hyping real, if temporary, environmental harms such as this.

If you want to know why to suspect that there’s some disturbing there there, read Chapter 3 of Power Grab, “Van Jones Was No Accident: The Obama Administration’s Radical Green Activists”. This crowd is not merely appeasing, but captured by, seriously radical elements of the left-wing political movement.