In a statement released Wednesday, Dr. John clarified his position regarding Shell, Jazz Fest and the wetlands. In it, he said:

“I’ve got to figure some kind of way to keep it separate. I don’t want to hurt the Jazz Fest per se. I’d just like to keep an awareness of what’s going on.”

Later, he said:

“Whatever other issues I may have with the oil companies, we can all agree that Shell’s rescue of Jazz Fest after Katrina and their continued support of the festival is a good thing for the community, our music and our culture. I hope that we can all find better ways to do our business and bring back our vital wetlands.”

Predictably, the first respondent to Keith Spera’s reporting of this at Nola.com wrote, “Nice crawfish move, Mack! Way to cover your ass!” However, Dr. John’s position is pretty similar to that of  Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network – the group behind his video. In a blog posting by Viles that I linked to yesterday, he wrote:

Shell does care. They have a long history in our community. I used to park my car (yes, I drive a car) in the parking garage at One Shell Square, the tallest building in NOLA. They are the largest corporate sponsor of the America’s Wetland/America’s Energy Coast PR effort. They bring you Jazz Fest. They built ice houses after Katrina/Rita destroyed fishing (and energy) infrastructure. They apparently lobbied Congress in favor of OCS revenue sharing with the affected coastal states. Just because they care, we can’t let them off the hook for their direct impacts. Shell mad eover 40 billion dollars in profit last year – the company needs to pay for real, on-the-ground coastal restoration to make up for the damage they’ve done. 

Shell has been a leader in our community, they need to keep leading. One of the oil companies needs to step forward, and say, we’ll pay. I think Shell is the most likely to actually do that, but it won’t happen without a public outcry.

Though the timing suggests an effort by Dr. John to get a little distance from the controversy, his position is consistent with the people he was supposedly distancing himself from. The most unfortunate part of the statement is the implication that someone put words in his mouth when he read someone else’s copy. Does anybody really believe that Dr. John can be manipulated like that?