With the Gulf of Mexico oil spill prompting clients to cancel their plans to get themselves some redfish, the charter captain agreed, for a price, to head out in search of another sea creature. The mere sight of it sends hope and fear colliding into each other like unfastened cargo. The captain's 24-foot Pathfinder skimmed for 20 miles through luscious backwaters. He turned down the Southwest Pass, took a cut into East Bay and, boom, there it was: Boom. With dull-orange skin, the boom stretched north for thousands of yards -- like a Christo art installation -- snaking, bobbing and, supposedly, protecting the sensitive shores from encroaching oil. Somewhere out there, BP was using submersible robots and other futuristic technology to stem a hemorrhaging leak caused by an explosion last month that killed 11 and destroyed an oil rig. The corporation's latest hopes rest with a containment dome, four stories high and weighing 98 tons, that will be lowered nearly a mile below the surface and placed over the leak, which is releasing more than 200,000 gallons of oil a day. By comparison, the approach here, along the Louisiana shoreline, seems almost primitive. All day and into the night, people lay boom -- maritime sandbags -- because this is what you do in times of hazardous spills, to protect your livelihood, your home, and the complicated ecosystem of which you are a part. But because boom seems to expect only strokes and kisses from the waves, it does not always work. For example, the Coast Guard reported that strong winds and choppy seas over the weekend had damaged about 80 percent of the boom laid out to protect the Alabama coast. 'Some of it has been torn apart, some of it is reparable, some was relocated by the weather,' Petty Officer David Mosley of the Coast Guard said. 'We're looking to fix what we can fix, and replace what we can replace.' But the power of boom reaches beyond the physical and into the psychological, helping many people here along the Louisiana shore to brace against waves of helplessness and doubt. Now that fear of oil contamination has led the government to ban fishing in most of these waters, boom gives people something to do other than contend with an invasive species called the news media, share the latest oil-slick rumor, and stare at the beckoning water. For the last several days, the Venice Marina at the bottom of Plaquemines Parish has been a fish-less stew of whisper, resentment and opportunity. Here, a lawyer from Mississippi, looking to sign up charter-boat captains interested in suing somebody. There, a denizen of the marina, scolding a foreign journalist for killing the local business with unnecessarily dire reports. And everywhere, reporters, scientists and environmentalists paying idle captains for boat rides in pursuit of the latest tip that oil has been seen near the Chandeleur Islands, or down by Breton Sound. Adding to the confusion have been the reports of reports that government scientists were predicting that oil would hit land -- now; no, now; no, no, now. But the locals say that out-of-towners don't understand the fickle currents the way they do. One official used as a measure the body of someone drowned at Alabama's Dauphin Island, and found in Venice. At least there is boom, lots and lots of boom. BP, effectively the host of the disaster, is getting boom wherever it can, from around the world and from a local manufacturer, according to Mike Abendhoff, a BP spokesman wearing a purple Louisana State University cap. This rush for boom is understandable, given that 760,000 feet of it may be needed in Louisiana alone, according to its governor, Bobby Jindal. Here in Plaquemines Parish, tensions centered around who got to lay the boom, how would they be certified, and how much they would get paid -- a reasonable concern, given the livelihoods lost. After days of meetings, confusion, de rigueur politics and the always-present questions of favoritism, a double-defense plan was developed. First there is the wonderfully named 'Vessels of Opportunity' program. BP is paying local shrimpers, oystermen and others to help experienced subcontractors lay boom, including heavy-duty containment boom -- rolled foam covered with polyin the open waters. Hundreds have sought to share in the opportunity caused by BP's disaster, but so far, only 15 local boats are working, while 50 more are on standby, though getting paid. Those counting on this program to replace their lost incoerior Waterway Strike Force Plan,' the creation of the parish president Billy Nungesser, perhaps the hardest-working man in Louisiana these days. Under his plan, which BP is ultimately paying for, local people have been hired to lay absorbent boom -- rolls of polypropylene fiber that looks like cotton -- around the hypersensitive marshes, but only if the marshes are under imminent threat. Boom matters, Nungesser said. To underscore the point, he boarded a barge that was about to deliver rolls of absorbent boom to a strategic location. He walked up to a detailed map of the local waterway that was marked with an asterisk and two words written in grease pen: 'Oil Spot.' Was this information, coming from a boat pilot in the area, good? Or just another rumor? 'They need to stop it here,' said Nungesser, and he was talking about boom. His finger, it turned out, rested on a spot very close to where that Christo-like boom snaked and bobbed along East Bay, beside a charter captain and his paying guests. They studied the dull-orange line of protection for a few minutes, then took the cut back into Southwest Pass to enter a wonderland of rippling bays and green-brown marshland, of snowy egrets floating like bits of linen above and jumping mullets announcing the abundance of larger fish below -- all now relying on oil-based products to be saved from oil-based d???E???A9560 coden u w BC-UDALL-DRILLING-DEN 05-05 0843 BC-UDALL-DRILLING-DEN Gulf oil spilling threatening climate change legislation in Washington By Michael Riley The Denver Post WASHINGTON -- The massive oil spill spreading across the Gulf of Mexico may doom the chances for passing climate legislation this year, potentially unraveling months of negotiations and spiking a delicate compromise at the core of the bill. The spill is testing the resolve of Democrats who have embraced expanded offshore drilling in return for sweeping measures to expand the production of solar, wind and other forms of green energy. Democratic leaders in the Senate have already said that the legislation would have to include tough new regulations for offshore drilling, while some environmental groups are pushing to remove any expansion at all. 'My initial reaction is one of anger and concern, directed frankly at the oil industry,' Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said Wednesday, as the spill expanded to 2,000 square miles and lawmakers continued to receive briefings by administration and industry officials. 'I think we are going to need better regulation regardless, based on what I'm learning about the permitting process and the way in which the worst-case scenarios were generated,' Udall said. A key member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Udall said it was too early to say whether he would withdraw his support for expanded offshore drilling, but suggested a wholesale review of permitting and regulations was needed. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., one of the authors of compromise climate change legislation now seen as having the best chance of garnering bipartisan support, met with colleagues Tuesday in an effort to reassure them over the drilling expansion. Meanwhile, several major environmental groups signed a letter insisting that an expansion of offshore drilling be taken off the table. They specifically cited a bill passed by the Senate energy panel that would allow drilling within 10 miles of the Florida coast. Udall supported that bill. Republicans say they may be willing to consider new regulations, specifically in deep-water drilling like the site of the Deep Horizon well that is spilling oil into the Gulf. But dropping expansion of offshore drilling altogether would kill the legislation, they insist. 'We think we need a balanced approach to our energy policy, and when you take out part of that mixture, it upsets the balance and it will upset support for it,' said Robert Dillon, spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the senior Republican on the energy committee. Several Senate committees are already planning hearings on the spill, and much of the next several weeks could be taken up trying to understand the causes behind an event that industry officials have long assured lawmakers would never occur. Combined with potentially weeks of daily coverage of an unfolding disaster, the changing dynamic will make it hard to settle on a way to deal with offshore drilling in the new legislation in time for the bill to go to the floor before late summer, when lawmakers' attention will shift to midterm elections. 'It completely complicates the calendar and makes it more difficult for a controversial measure to be brought up, especially one dealing with energy policy,' Dillon said. 'It took a long time to get close to this type of broader energy legislation, and with emotions running high right now, everyone is going to need a cooling-off period,' he said. Udall may be one of the best tests of Democrats' willingness to continue to support expanded offshore drilling in exchange for what they see as the greater good of a climate change bill. One of the most environmentally friendly lawmakers in Congress, Udall dropped his long-standing opposition to more offshore drilling during his 2008 Senate bid, as gas prices topped $4 a gallon and energy self-sufficiency became a pressing campaign issue. As an enthusiastic backer of climate change legislation, he had continued that support on the energy committee, moving along with other Democrats who saw the need to craft legislation that could garner Republican support and the backing of President Barack Obama, who announced a major expansion in offshore drilling only last month. Udall said Wednesday that it is now clear many lawmakers largely accepted the assurances of industry that modern technologies were safe, even as drilling pushed out to deeper and deeper water where capping leaks can be extraordinarily difficult. 'It will be very important to fully understand what mistakes were made, where the technology failed us, and to have that inform whatever policy we put in place,' said Udall, who said he was 'sobered' by the disaster. 'The irony of ironies would be if we didn't pass a climate bill because of this spill,' Udall said. 'In fact, the spill only enforces my position and that of many, many people across the political spectrum that we need to aggressively invest in clean energy.' 