Gulf spill an economic boom for some

The Gulf oil spill is a bonanza for some and a bust for others.

The worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history has spurred something of an economic boom in some communities where cleanup operations are based, an Associated Press analysis has shown.

But BP's oil spill has delivered a double whammy to areas too far away from the cleanup to serve as staging ground for masses of workers, but close enough to experience severe losses in tourism, fishing and drilling.

Sales tax revenue in Gulf states showed a stark difference.

In Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish alone, a fishing and oil-and-gas mecca that saw an influx of about 5,000 cleanup workers, state sales tax revenue shot up 80 percent in June over the same month of 2009.

By contrast, Vermilion Parish in the Cajun country of western Louisiana, close enough to turn off tourists but too far to play a significant role in the cleanup, suffered a 45 percent decrease for the same period.

Both areas have been affected by the closing of Gulf fishing grounds and the threat to oil field jobs posed by a federal moratorium on deepwater drilling.

If there is good news to be found, it is in front-line places like Plaquemines, where thousands of spill workers and companies that serve their needs, such as caterers, have snapped up lodges and rental housing and have spent their pay in local honky-tonks and restaurants.

"The cleanup is a whole industry," said Brooke Andry, whose 20 or so rental properties in Plaquemines are booked up with cleanup workers and BP officials instead of the customary recreational fishermen.

The AP analysis showed that, taken together, the 39 Gulf Coast counties and parishes in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida actually saw a modest increase in year-over-year sales tax revenue following the spill. However, this is a tale of booms canceling out busts, of selective prosperity, and of temporary relief that has done little to assuage anxiety about the future.

In Vermilion and other areas on the fringe, tourists have stayed away under the false impression that the whole coast is lathered in oil. "People don't want to be in an area that has problems like this," said Betty Bernard, owner of Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, which has lost half its business this summer from last year. "The news media has it that we have oil in our backyards, and we don't."