Gautreaux, Jones weigh in on oil moratorium

Both State Senator Butch Gautreaux and State Representative Sam Jones believe President Obama’s moratorium placing a halt to deepwater offshore exploration drilling for the next six months, have their fingers crossed that it will be over in 30 days.

Gautreaux and Jones, both Democrats, hope the six month shut down was a number picked by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and suggested to President Obama, in order to give the Interior Department enough time to decide what regulatory changes are necessary for offshore oil prospecting.

Gautreaux, who represents St. Mary, Assumption, lower St. Martin, a small part of Lafourche, and half of Terrebonne Parish, said he is for “safe drilling” and that he understands President Obama’s concerns.

“But I don’t think six months are necessary, if the federal government has its resources together,” Gautreaux said. “As soon as they start inspections, I think they should be wrapped up in a matter of weeks.”

On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded while working for BP. The incident killed 11 people and unleashed a catastrophic oil spill. President Obama imposed the shut down last week.

“We need to be respective of the lives lost, the families who have lost loved ones, and at the same time, the lives living aboard and working on these rigs, and their families,” Gautreaux said.

The senator stressed that he wants to see people, “back at work as soon as possible,” but conversely, the inspections should not be done, “recklessly.”

Gautreaux also pointed out that President Obama and others on the federal level, as well as legislators in Louisiana, fear there is an uncertain relationship that many consider to be “cozy” between the Mineral Management Service and the oil industry. “We don’t know what the MMS has been overlooking, especially in the wake of all of the allegations and accusations that are out there,” he said.

According to its website at www.mms.gov, the Minerals Management Service is a bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior, and is the federal agency that manages the nation’s natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses an average of $13.7 billion per year in revenues from federal offshore mineral leases, and from onshore mineral leases on federal and American Indian lands.

The New York Times, in 2008, reported in an article titled “Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department,” that the MSS agency has been, “caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal, including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.”

The article also paints MMS as a “dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch. “

Of MMS, Sam Jones, who represents most of St. Mary Parish, Jeanerette, and lower St. Martin, said “Exactly my point. The mismanagement in this agency could even go back to President Clinton’s term, even to the first Bush. Let’s call this possible negligence what it is, and not blame it all on this presidency,” he said.

Jones said he is, “100 percent against the shut down.”

“This is going to hammer our economy. It’s going to be a doubly whammy from what we get from the oil spill,” he said. “You cannot stigmatize an industry by one terrific and terrible event. There are a lot of operators out there who follow the rules and did not and will not have this happen to them.”

Jones believes that when the investigation is completed, all fingers will point to MMS.

“And when they finish cleaning out that rat’s nest, there will be a lot of people going to jail.”

Jones said the shut down or moratorium is just a process of management that could last up to 45 days. “This is just overkill by Salazar,” Jones said.