Alan Sayre is a New Orleans-based business writer who works for The Associated Press. Today he published an analysis of the perfect job killing storm the Obama administration is creating in Louisiana:
In the blink of an eye, the economic focus in Louisiana has shifted from recession recovery to avoiding actual and potential job losses piling up at a staggering rate.
And there’s very little that the state can do: The tally is due to the Obama administration decisions affecting petroleum, defense and space — all coming together in a perfect storm.
….
Last Tuesday, Northrop Grumman Corp., faced with tighter Pentagon spending and Obama administration priorities aimed at Afghanistan and away from the Navy, said it would shut its Avondale shipyard — the state’s largest industrial employer with about 5,000 workers — in early 2013 after two military ships are finished.
…
Another source of misery is the deepwater petroleum drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. The six-month “pause” that the Obama administration insists on could kill the drilling business off the Louisiana coast for years, industry and government officials warn.
…
Then there’s the end of the space shuttle program. Earlier this month, the last external fuel tank expected to fly rolled out of the Lockheed Martin Corp. operation at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. By the end of September, only about 200 workers will still be around from a payroll of 2,700 in 2008 and 5,000 during the mid-1980s.
Read Sayre’s full article here.
