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Terrebonne Pariah chooses to work with the energy industry to help grow the local economy, create good jobs and work to protect our coast. However, the State seemingly does not want us to set our own path with our most important industry.
The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources directing the Terrebonne Parish DA to potentially lay the groundwork for lawsuits looks like the opposite of what the State of Louisiana and Gov. John Bel Edwards said they would do In 2016, Gov. Edwards encouraged Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes to sue energy companies or the State “will do so” Parish Presidents Dove and Cantrelle stated that they preferred not to sue and would work together with the industry, as both parishes have for decades. The Terrebonne Parish Council passed a resolution not to sue energy companies.
In late 3016, according to state lawyer, Donald Price, the Governor chose not to file lawsuits because some parishes “proposed an alternative to filing suit.” Those parishes “would begin investigating their claims and gather information…, in lieu of filing lawsuits.”
This is exactly what Parish President Dove is doing in Terrebonne by already auditing thousands of coastal use permits. It raises the question: why the State is going against its own words and telling Terrebonne Pariah to do something the community clearly said it does not want to do – sue the largest employer here and likely hurt any positive recovery of the industry.
Hostile threats and over-the-top lawsuits don’t build relationships. They end them.
There is another way, and it is not found in a courtroom.
The best way to preserve Louisiana’s economic and coastal future is working with the oil and natural gas industry, not against it.
Louisiana’s energy industry remains the primary economic driver of state and local finances – infringing money dedicated to coastal restoration. Even through the recent downturn, in the Bayou Region, several thousand citizens work for energy companies and service businesses with more opportunities emerging here each day. One of every 13 jobs in Terrebonne and Lafourche are directly attributable to the operations of Port Fourchon. There are twice as many energy workers in Terrebonne than the number of Louisiana employees working at the largest Fortune 500 company based in the state.
The work of the people and businesses of Terrebonne’s energy industry creates more than (a million year for services we all need, like law enforcement, roads, playgrounds and schools.
Louisiana’s energy industry is the largest entity, beyond the federal government, contributing to Louisiana’s coast. It serves as the primary funding source for projects that are in the works right now to protect our state’s precious coastline and the environment where we all live.
Beyond jobs and money, energy companies, like ConocoPhillips, have built real coastal projects for decades not because they have to, but because they want to, For example, 2,500 acres have been restored by Terrebonne Parish, Ducks Unlimited, the energy industry and the State working together through the Liner Canal, Carencro Bayou and Lost Lake projects. Apache Corporation received Louisiana’s top conservation award for planting four million trees along the coast. Port Fourchon has funded the construction of 1.000 acres of wetlands with thousands more acres planted as they consider expansion.
Terrebonne Parish is pursuing its plan to work with the industry. This plan is creating jobs and building a working coast. The State just needs to listen.
