Businesswoman Lori Davis didn’t mince words at Tuesday’s U.S. Senate field hearing in Lafayette, LA: “The Obama administration has done absolutely nothing to protect, help or support us as an industry that feeds and powers this nation.” Davis told the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, “We need answers, we deserve answers, we need to return to work.” Davis, owner of RIG-CHEM, was one of many victims who gave a very human face to President Obama’s ongoing Gulf drilling moratorium, currently not scheduled to be lifted until November. The adjustments …
The last time I traveled to Louisiana to observe the oil spill response, I spent a good deal of time with state and local disaster response officials and the state’s National Guard. On this visit I got to see the problem from the perspective of the federal responders, particularly the Coast Guard. Under the Oil Spill Act of 1990, the Coast Guard is responsible for coordinating the national response to major oil spills. They work with the company responsible for the spill, in this case BP, to affect the clean-up, …
Today, a team of experts from The Heritage Foundation left port at Myrtle Grove, Louisiana to tour marshes, wetlands, estuaries and lakes from Venice to Grand Isle, and spoke with officials leading the cleanup and protection efforts. One message was made extremely clear: The lack of urgency from the federal government remains. The Heritage team witnessed workers collecting boom saturated in oil and other boats maintaining and placing new boom. The edges of several marsh patches were visibly stained black and although some areas already showed signs of recovery, had …
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 …
It gets pretty boring to watch conservatives endlessly complain about a fawning press corps, and a biased media. Yes, a majority of the national media is left-leaning; even they will admit as much. Some journalists put political views aside, and do an excellent job of delivering the news. Others can’t bear to avoid political commentary. You can provide your own examples here. But the problem conservatives have these days can’t just be prescribed to one individual journalist, but more to “group-think” deciding what is and isn’t a national story. And …
President Barack Obama’s decision to ban oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the federal government’s bureaucratic delays are exacerbating the nightmares already tormenting the torn region. Now, in a bitter twist of irony, Obama’s surgeon general, Regina Benjamin, this week visited the Gulf to warn residents about the mental health problems caused by oil spill-related stress (that her boss is likely making worse). See if you can connect the dots on this one:
LAFITTE, LA — Residents of this community south of New Orleans haven’t had much good news since the oil started spewing on April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico. Fishing is a way of life here and that’s come to a standstill. So when Washington sent Ken Feinberg to town, it could’ve turned ugly. Instead, the attorney with a deep Boston accent brightened the spirits of the standing-room-only crowd. Feinberg, tapped by President Obama to oversee the $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the spill, had the audience laughing …
For the past two weeks, the Heritage Foundation has been down in the Gulf raising awareness about what is and is not working in the oil spill cleanup and what possible solutions exist that are being ignored by the media. Last Friday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) led a group of eight Congressmen on a Gulf Coast visit and Distinguished Fellow Ernest Istook joined them, recording what they saw. During a boat trip at Grand Isle, Louisiana, local officials, including Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Deano Bonano, described how bureaucracy—both from BP and from …
NEW ORLEANS — Yesterday marked a significant milestone for recreational fishermen in Louisiana. After weeks of closures, the state opened approximately 86 percent of recreational fishing areas. Recreational fishing differs from commercial fishing, which remains off limits in many areas. The move, however, was hailed by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham as a major step for returning to normalcy. “I consider [yesterday's] action the first step in opening state waters to all fishing, both recreational and commercial,” Barham said. The opening includes licensed charter boat guides …
One of the many questions Heritage’s team in the Gulf asked locals when they visited last week was how they thought the President’s drilling moratorium would affect them. We have highlighted some of the many concerns they shared in a new video. They were roundly critical of the composition of the President’s oil spill commission and the devastating effects they expect to see from his drilling moratorium. As Ted Falgout, Former Director of Port Fourchon, says in the video, “We’re going to start losing rigs quickly and they may not …
