MONTGOMERY — During a 20-minute conference call with statewide media Wednesday afternoon, District 3 Congressman Mike Rogers said his June 21 visit to Louisiana opened his eyes to the plight of the people of the Gulf coast. 

“I had no idea how massive the migration of oil [to the shore] has been,” said Rogers, who was on the coast last Monday with other members of the House Homeland Security Committee. 

Rogers and his fellow congressmen met with Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen before flying over the Gulf. While airborne, they were able to see oil spreading from horizon to horizon, Rogers said. 

“There is just so much [oil] in the water,” Rogers said. “There are masses of oil off the coast of Alabama.” 

Rogers said he believes both BP and President Obama are doing everything they can to cap the spill. 

“But it’s still going to be August before they have it stopped,” he said. “Based on my observations, they will be there for years cleaning this up.” 

Rogers said he and the others members of the Committee met with a BP representative who seemed much more attuned to the needs and concerns of the people of the area than company CEO Tony Hayward did while he was in charge of the cleanup. 

“He was a poor spokesman,” Rogers said of Hayward. 

In response to a reporter’s question, Rogers said the best way to help Alabamians who have had their lives turned upside-down by the tragedy is to hit the road.

“Folks who live and work on the Gulf Coast need their livelihoods to continue,” Rogers said. “Go down to the coast, spend some time with your family this summer. There is no waiting in line at the restaurants right now.” 

Responding to another question, Rogers said he does not believe President Obama’s plan for a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling is the right way to go about preventing another spill. 

“There are 3,800 wells in the Gulf of Mexico, employing over 200,000 people,” he said. “It’s not right that we hit these people while they’re down.” 

On Thursday, Rogers press secretary Shea Snider said there are 58 drilling rigs currently working in the Gulf of Mexico. She said that of those, 33 are operating in water deeper than 500 feet and would be shut down by the moratorium.

Snider said each rig provides somewhere between 180 and 250 jobs, which would bring the total number of workers actually affected by the moratorium to around 7,000.

The Obama administration was dealt a minor setback in its attempts to stop deepwater drilling Thursday when a judge denied its attempts to legally continue the moratorium as the issue is litigated in court.

The administration had hoped that by upholding a stay, the federal court would have given it time to re-craft the language of the moratorium, which Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has pledged to do.

With the stay request denied, the 33 deepwater wells that had put a stop to their operations can now legally begin drilling again.