Posted on 07/27/2010 5:45:42 PM PDT by smokingfrog
President Barack Obama's "reckless" moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is suffocating small businesses and destroying livelihoods, lawmakers and residents said Tuesday.
"The decision to stop energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico appears to have been made in an uninformed manner that borders recklessness," Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu told the small business committee, which she chairs.
"It has increased our risk to the environment, it has increased our national security risk, it has increased the risks to job security. It must be reversed now."
A study by Louisiana State University finance professor Joseph Mason estimates the six-month moratorium, which ends in late November, would cost more than 8,000 jobs in Gulf states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
Nearly 500 million dollars in wages will be wiped out by the deepwater drilling ban, as will be 2.1 billion dollars in economic activity and some 100 million dollars in state and local tax revenues.
But the impact of the moratorium would not stop there, the study warned.
At least 12,000 jobs could be lost nationwide, and with them would go around 200 million dollars in federal tax revenues.
The moratorium was spurred by a rare but tragic accident on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, which blew up 99 days ago, killing 11 workers and sparking a massive oil spill, said Landrieu.
But it was an over-reaction, she added.
"From 1947 until 2009, there were 42,000 wells drilled in state and federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico and 99 days ago one of them blew up," Landrieu said.
"Eleven men lost their lives. But no matter how horrible that is, you don't shut down the entire industry," she told AFP, calling for the drilling ban to be reversed immediately.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Where’s Mary?
ping
The Idiot-In-Chief can’t hear them. He’s too busy jetting his butt ugly wife, kids and himself around the world on our dime. What’s he care?
Too little too late Mary!
"As a result of the uncertainties surrounding the offshore drilling moratorium, we are actively seeking international opportunities to keep our rigs fully employed," Dickerson said. "We greatly regret the loss of U.S. jobs that will result from this rig relocation."
Idled Gulf Rigs Head For Africa
It is not just Gulf operations that are being effected either.
Wait and see for Shell {Shell puts Arctic drilling plans on hold, waiting on feds}
Let's not leave the refineries out.
EPA gives final "no" to Texas refinery permits
Then there are the land-based oil leases.
Judge Grills Feds on Pulling Drilling Leases"A federal judge on Wednesday questioned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's justification for canceling 77 drilling leases sold by the Bush administration around national parks in Utah."
Der Oberschwartzen Fuerher hat gespoken! Zer vill be kein profits made vile Ich bin In Office!
Now, all you underlings get your white (oops!) selves back in your cages.
i thought 0zero got turned away by a fed judge on such a moratorium....
It looks like Beck was right when he described the Obama WH as “Crime Inc.”. He recently sketched out a scenario where George Soros invested 900 million in Brazilian “PetroBras”. They have an offshore deep well, but need DRILLING RIGS. It looks like Obama’s moratorium will result in rigs leaving the gulf and presumably head for Africa and Brazil. Soros gets richer. Payback for his support.
Too bad, Mary, you and yours are just crackers to him. Chicago democrats definitely look down on Gulf coast folks.
Why do they not just do it anyway and ignore the insane Gov. Agency.
Why isn’t this considered Treason? We are at war and our government is undermining our defense energy capabilities.
Americans across this nation have loved ones whose lives are being compromised by the very person who claims authority to to send their sons and daughters overseas to fight for our freedom. These two actions cannot coincide.
He did.
He simply wrote another one, changed a word or two here and there.
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