Jindal Versus the Volcano

[struggle4progress]

February 25, 2009, 11:45AM

Gov. Bobby Jindal's call out of volcanic monitoring programs as wasteful governmental spending during the Republican Response to President Obama's address last night is either cynically provincial, dangerously uninformed, or extremely partisan ...

The potential argument that volcanic monitoring has no relevance when it comes to saving American lives and property is baseless. In the case of the 1991 Pinatubo eruption outside of Manila, the warnings provided allowed for the safe evacuation of 15,000 servicemen and women (and families) from nearby Clark Air Force Base.

Closer to home, the USGS is closely monitoring of the active Redoubt volcano in Alaska, which they predict will erupt within the next days or weeks. The scale of the monitoring program at Redoubt was significantly increased in the aftermath of the volcano's last major eruption in 1989-90 (again, during the first Bush administration). This previous eruption caused economic losses estimated at more than $160 million, and sent a cloud of ash into the sky that caused engine failures aboard a Boeing 747-200 with 231 passengers on board, flying north of Anchorage (aircraft engines tolerate volcanic ash about as well as they tolerate birds). Ash alerts issued by the USGS since that last eruption have been subsequently used to shut down or redirect air traffic into and out of the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage ...

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/northstardon/2009/02/jindal-versus-the-volcano.php