...possibly more than 10,000 within months. The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association predicts that lost wages will total $330 million a month.

Shell Exploration and Production says it has suspended drilling at two of its deepwater wells, will postpone drilling planned for this summer and is analyzing its business plan.

“[The Obama] administration looks at this like a light switch that can be turned on and off,“ says Brady Como, executive vice president of Delmar Systems Inc., Lafayette, La. He says his company, which handles offshore mooring for deepwater rigs, is picking up rigs in the Gulf and stacking them along the Louisiana coast. Some may move elsewhere in the world where they could go under contract for years, he says. After the deepwater rigs are stacked, Como says Delmar isn’t sure what will happen to its 300 employees.

The public has offered BP and the government about 40,000 remedial recommendations, says Kent Wells, BP’s senior vice president, but so far none of them have been used.

On June 4, Allen said a new group has been formed to field recommendations at www.Fedbizopps.org “This will be a federal process to ensure a fair, systematic, responsive and accountable review of alternative response technologies by interagency experts,“ says a release.

In the Wings

Reports of dying waterfowl on the Texas Gulf coast are unfounded, says a Coast Guard spokesman, although scientists say the ultimate effect of the oil and dispersants on fish and wildlife is hard to assess. But Ken Medlock, a fellow in energy and resource economics at Houston’s Rice University, says the effect on companies is direct and immediate. “This is not just about big oil,“ Medlock says. “It’s about service companies—suppliers of equipment, valves, cement. These are not always massive firms. If they’re not working, they feel economic pain, and this is not the best time for that.“

Medlock says that is where Texas will be affected the most. “It’s where most of those companies are based,“ he says.

In Florida, the lead agency responding to impacts reported on June 7 that “dime- to silver-dollar-sized“ tar balls and patties were found scattered from the Alabama-Florida border east along the Panhandle, with concentration in the far western areas. Oil sheen is reported in some areas offshore. State officials say they have placed about 265,850 ft of boom along the sensitive areas, and another 5,100 ft are staged. Area counties also are advancing supplemental booming plans.

Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, Gov. Charlie Crist (I) has asked BP for $100 million to “enhance monitoring, evaluating and responding to the constantly changing conditions“ related to the spill.