"Callous Disregard"

"Hands off, Buster!"

Governor Meemaw (and is it just me, or does Blanco bear more than a mere passing resemblence to Angela Merkel?) is taking Preznit Perv to court:

The suit seeks to block the federal Mineral Management Service from holding a scheduled Aug. 16 lease sale of 4,000 blocks in the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration, accusing the agency of disregarding the environmental damage caused by the drilling. In a written statement, Blanco said the agency plans to hold the sale before getting adequate information about additional damage done to the coast last year by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"This action shows a callous disregard for the serious concerns the state has articulated in letters requesting the lease sale be postponed," Blanco said...

Although the suit does not seek money, it represents Louisiana's latest attempt to get a larger share of the royalties. State officials have argued for years that Louisiana deserves a far bigger cut of the royalties that oil and gas companies pay to the federal government — partly to pay for roads leading to the coast, partly to pay for restoration of the coast.

"The governor has made clear all along, this is her card to play," Sidney Coffee, Blanco's adviser on coastal issues, said of the lawsuit.

Louisiana now get less than 2 percent of federal royalties, and the state's congressional delegation has brought the issue up annually on Capitol Hill, trying to increase that percentage.

The House is considering a bill to give Louisiana and other Gulf states 50 to 75 percent of the royalties — a level the White House considers too high. A Senate bill offers a more modest revenue sharing program, giving the four oil and gas producing Gulf states 37.5 percent with another 12.5 percent to go into a conservation fund and 50 percent to the U.S. Treasury.

The planned lease sale includes 3,787 unleased blocks covering about 20.4 million acres offshore from Texas and in deeper waters off of the coast of Louisiana. MMS said the sale could result in the eventual production of up to 262 million barrels of oil and 1.44 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

If nothing else, perhaps this action will shed some well-needed light on the Gret Stet's national economic contribution, in addition to agriculture (staples and speciality commodities), fishery/seafood production, trade via the ports...and intangible-but-priceless things like the NOLA culture...the equally interesting, unique and fiercely independent Cajun culture...the "Sportman's Paradise" (recreational hunting/fishing--ask Deadeye Dick Cheney, his buddy Fat Tony Scalia...or numerous others who are far less odious about that) etc.

Louisiana is both a place of pleasure--great or simple, depending on your preference--AND a place of work...a quick search, for instance, yielded the interesting fact that in 2005 the Gret Stet actually outproduced Texas as a source for domestic supplies of oil (on average over 100K barrels per day more, despite Texass being five times larger geographically, and, coincidentally, in population as well).

If the nation has grown "tired" of hearing about the flood following Katrina--and Hurricane Rita--then perhaps we in the Gret Stet should show an equal fatigue in helping keep gasoline prices from REALLY going through the roof of their SUVs. Or maybe what they really want is $5 dollar a gallon gasoline...and heating/cooling bills of over a thousand.

Their move.