Lawmakers agree, legislating industry would be detrimental to La.’s growth

U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has two chief worries about the oil and gas production industry in the Tri-parishes and in the country: cap and trade legislation and increased taxes from the federal government.

At a talk in Thibodaux last week, he called cap and trade legislation-designed to limit carbon emissions – “a massive tax on energy across the board.”

Also in Thibodaux, he commented on higher taxation of the oil and gas industry: “There are eight different proposals by the Obama administration to increase taxes on oil and gas producers. We want to decrease dependence on foreign oil. This would be devastating for Louisiana.”

Vitter said that President Barack Obama is proposing higher taxes on the industry in his budget. Constitutionally, Congress has the ability to levy taxes.

Vitter has backed measures providing coastal states with the option of petitioning Congress to expand offshore energy exploration and terminating the federal moratorium on leasing parts of the Outer Continental Shelf.

“The only way to reverse rising fuel costs is to increase our own domestic energy supply while we continue toward greater conservation and alternative resources,” he wrote in one of his position papers last year.

In the Washington Post last year, he wrote, “We are nearing an energy crisis, and it is difficult for people around the world – let alone here at home – to understand why we are leaving these resources untapped as our national demand continues to grow.”

Vitter’s main rival in the 2010 race for his Senate seat, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-Napoleonville), proposed tax breaks on the oil and gas production industry and opposed new taxes, according to his spokeswoman Robin Winchell. She said Melancon worked to strip from the budget more than $30 billion in new taxes on the industry.

“Melancon was on the budget committee,” she said. “He went to the chairman and said they (the taxes) would be detrimental to Louisiana. During the nationwide recession, you shouldn’t harm the industry. The chairman agreed, so the new provisions were not in there.”

Last week in Thibodaux, Vitter said Melancon supports Obama’s budget. “That makes it easier to pass into law,” he said.

Like Vitter, Melancon opposed this year’s cap and trade legislation.

“He tried to make it better for refineries in our district,” Winchell said. “He thought it (cap and trade) was not good enough.”

In a release in May following his vote against cap and trade, Melancon wrote, ” South Louisianians want to reduce pollution in the air we breathe and the water we drink. We want to slow or even reverse climate change. And we want our nation to become more energy independent. But we must do so in a way that won’t threaten our offshore oil and gas industry – an industry that has provided good-paying jobs to hundreds of thousands of workers in south Louisiana for generations.”

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said the senator is a staunch supporter of increased oil and gas exploration and incentives to boost production.

“It’s important for the energy security of the U.S.,” said Aaron Saunders.

Landrieu also favors states sharing in the revenue from oil and gas produced off their coasts.

“It acknowledges what coastal communities bear in facilitating oil and gas production,” he said.

Saunders called Landrieu one of the key senators opposing billions in new taxes on oil and gas production proposed by the Obama administration.

“It’s detrimental to the economy,” he said.

In a release issued in May, Landrieu wrote, “The course of action proposed in the president’s budget would compromise America’s energy security, weaken our economy and reduce the supply of natural gas, which would undermine our efforts to clean our air and reduce carbon emissions.”