Changes Ahead

The Hits Keep Coming
March 1, 2021
Bayou Business Monthly – March 2021
March 1, 2021
The Hits Keep Coming
March 1, 2021
Bayou Business Monthly – March 2021
March 1, 2021

With travel at record-breaking lows, the oil demand dropped tremendously last year, greatly affecting the local economy that thrives on oil and gas production. When the vaccine arrived last December, it was a sign of hope not only for ending the pandemic but also for bringing back jobs. 


The end of 2020 saw not only a new vaccine but also the shift to a new presidency, one that many in south Louisiana feel is against the oil and gas sector. And shortly after President Joe Biden took office, they felt they were proven right. 

On Jan. 20, the same day as his inauguration, Biden’s administration issued a 60-day ban on new oil and gas leases and permits on federal onshore and offshore lands while it evaluates the legal and policy implications of the program. 

The move came with much opposition from local business leaders and elected officials. 


“Leasing and drilling moratoriums are an existential threat to our nation’s energy security and equate to unemployment of disastrous proportions in the Gulf Coast region and beyond. Additionally, the most significant (and only recurring) source of funding for coastal protection and restoration would be drastically reduced, thereby gutting America’s most expansive program of environmental and climate resilience,” reads a letter to members of the Louisiana Delegation from South Central Industrial Association (SCIA), which represents more than 250 member companies with over 200,000 employees, many of whom service the oil, gas and marine operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and around the world.

The organization’s virtual meeting on Feb. 8 included remarks by House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is strongly against Biden’s decisions regarding oil and gas, even writing an op-ed for the Advocate, in which he said the president’s plan for American energy will “wreak havoc on workers and families in Louisiana.” 

“We had literally become energy sufficient to the point where we were exporting oil and natural gas all around the world,” he said during the SCIA meeting. “We don’t want to see our state go backward, and this is going to be something that we continue to be very vocal about.” 


Scalise, who said he is building up a national coalition with Republicans and Democrats who are concerned with recent energy actions, said the oil and gas lease moratorium doesn’t just affect Louisiana. “When you throw in all of the different states that would be impacted by a ban on leasing on federal lands, it goes far and wide.” 

The congressman also argued that keeping oil and gas production in the United States will also help the environment, saying that other countries that would see job production increase don’t have the same standards as America, especially when it comes to carbon emissions. He also noted the money that’s generated from drilling in the Gulf goes to coastal protection and restoration. 

“You go to Port Fourchon and you see all of the servicing that’s done for the deep water. And that’s important for the jobs, but it also generates tens of millions of dollars, and in some cases,…hundreds of millions of dollars a year that we use to restore our coast.”  Scalise said. “So it’s a major environmental battle that we need to keep educating the rest of the country on. I do that when I bring members of Congress down to go to deep water rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico – I’ll let them know how the tie-in exists between the oil and gas industry and our economic and our environmental survival.” 


As with other oil permits and lease bans in the past, Scalise said, there is room for stakeholders to make their claims in court against the Department of Interior. 

“If they try to just shut this off and stop issuing leases, stop issuing permits to help properly execute those leases, you are violating terms of a contract that was in place with the federal government already,” he said. “So, I think there’s a lot of standing that will be there for people to file lawsuits and potentially block this.” 

Scalise said the best chance to get some of the president’s energy policies reversed is for people from both sides of the aisle to advocate for American oil and gas production. 


“I think the Biden administration is going to find out very quickly that this is an industry that has a lot of support from a lot of different areas of the country. And the more we get unified and vocalize that opposition, the more chance we have to reverse it,” he said. 

“For example, the permit moratorium is 60 days now. Will they renew it? Will they let it go away and get back to a normal permitting regime? We’ll see,” he continued. “But the more noise we make between now and then, the better opportunity we have to reverse both the leasing ban and the permit ban.” •