Landrieu: Coast help not far off

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu began her talk as the main speaker at Thursday night’s Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Banquet with the biggest news to hit Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes in recent years: the passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) by Congress in November.

WRDA authorized the funding of Morganza to the Gulf in south Louisiana. Included in the multi-billion dollar project is funding to build hurricane protection levees in Terrebonne Parish for the first time.

The act passed after Congress overrode President Bush’s veto. Congress has not yet appropriated money to fund WRDA.

Landrieu said the state had been trying to secure federal funding for Morganza to the Gulf for 25 years.

“Without that bill passing, we would have red lights all over south Louisiana,” she said. “We have not secured every dollar, but the bottom line is without authorization, we can’t even start. It was a huge victory.”

Bush, however, did sign 2006’s Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which funnels to Louisiana 37.5 percent of all tax dollars paid by oil companies producing petroleum off the states’ Gulf coasts.

Much of the revenue will be placed in a trust fund for coastal preservation.

“We’re putting a fence around that money,” she said.

Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama are the only states allowing drilling off their coasts.

Landrieu said the state has been trying to garner a bigger share of the taxes paid by oil companies to the federal government since the 1940s.

“In many places, there’s no onshore drilling,” she said. Not every state permits pipelines, either.

“But in Louisiana, we’re proud to be the center of America’s energy coast,” she said. “Allow us to get a portion of those revenues.”

Landrieu said, last year, oil companies paid $10 billion in severance taxes and royalties on offshore petroleum production. That works out to Louisiana receiving $3.7 billion dollars under the Energy Security Act.

“That’s not chump change,” she said.

Since 80 percent of the oil is produced in Louisiana’s waters, many could argue that the state deserves a larger share of the tax money, Landrieu contended. But Louisiana needed to work with senators from the other states.

“We deserve 50 percent, but we had to come to terms,” she said. “It will give us a permanent stream of revenue to fund Morganza. We won’t have to go to Congress with a cup.

“Without that independent stream, we couldn’t do comprehensive coastal restoration,” the senator said.

Landrieu later stated that the late Leander Perez, who owned oil-rich lands in Plaquemines Parish, demanded a 50 percent share from President Harry Truman, but was turned down.

“We’ve been trying to right that injustice,” she said.

Negative impressions about Louisiana continue to be a problem.

Landrieu pointed to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert asking, “Why would anybody live in south Louisiana?” following Hurricane Katrina.

“I had to remind the speaker that three million people live below I-10 in Louisiana,” she said. “Who would man the rivers to keep the lights on in Washington, D.C.?”

Landrieu feels biofuel derived from sugarcane is one of the keys to Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes’ future prosperity.

“It will take sugarcane to rebuild our economy,” she said. “For sugarcane farmers, it’s the real deal. We’ve put millions into research converting sugarcane to be a substitute for petroleum.”

But coastal preservation is the main concern.

“We’re now on a solid road to restoring our coast,” she said. “It started under Mike Foster, continued through Blanco and now Jindal.

“You can count on me. This is a battle we started together. We will finish this together.”

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu addresses members of the Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce at last week’s awards ceremony. * Photo by MIKE BROSSETTE