Posted on 02/01/2012 12:41:43 PM PST by raptor22
Energy: Small- and medium-size businesses serving Louisiana's energy industry are shedding employees, dipping into personal savings or moving elsewhere to stay afloat. The administration's war on fossil fuels is taking its toll.
The federal six-month moratorium on drilling that was issued in May 2010, after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, has been officially lifted, but it might as well still be in effect.
The glacial permitting process put in place in the aftermath in the name of public safety is killing an industry pledged to wean us from the "energy of the past" will not mourn.
A study released Monday by economic development agency Greater New Orleans Inc., or GNO, details the dire results to the federal deepwater drilling moratorium and its regulatory aftermath. While on the surface things appear to be going well, the supporting small and medium business infrastructure is struggling to survive.
The study says that despite the relatively limited employment losses reflected in public employment data, businesses are indeed laying off workers, reducing hours and salaries and limiting new hires as a result of the permit slowdown and insecurity about the future of the Gulf of Mexico."
"You don't see how badly they are hurting because they are still operating," said Lizette Terral, New Orleans region of JPMorgan Chase Inc., a GNO board member. To do that, many have laid off workers, reduced hiring to replacements only and dipped into personal savings to the point of exhausting them.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Focused like a laser on jobs, yeah; we sure hear ya Zero.
The industry is not that which should be dying
Energy independence ping
When the work is spread thin by delays, it is hard to keep people if it isn't that way elsewhere.
When the time grows between being able to send in invoices, that hurts like all get out, and if you are using people with a base salary and benefits you have to continue paying for those, and for worker's comp, regardless of the thinly stretched revenue stream. That crunch can be a killer, especially for smaller businesses which are less likely to be spread over multiple service areas.
I know the problem well. I wince even thinking about it
In the cyclical 70’s construction business there was no winning course. You let go the employees they were gone when you needed them. You kept them on (as I did) you lost your shirt.
We all made do, but didn’t make a lot of money.
I’m older and wiser and have downsized to just me. (and my computer)
I don't hire, I just engage the services of a couple of very trusted and well-paid subcontractors.
In the long run, I think we are all better off with that arrangement.
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