[StBernard] EDITORIAL: Louisiana's stick

[Westley Annis]

Periodically, the press office will share editorials about Governor Blanco's
work in various areas.

EDITORIAL: Louisiana's stick 

By: The Times Picayune
Published: Sunday, February 5, 2006

Louisiana's leaders have made a strong case for getting a larger, fairer
share of offshore oil royalties for the state; so far, though, reason and
persuasion haven't worked with Congress or the Bush administration. 

But Louisiana also has a stick -- the power to oppose the sale of new
offshore oil leases -- and Gov. Blanco made the right move by showing that
she might use it. 

She threatened, in a letter to the Minerals Management Service, to withhold
support for an August sale unless Louisiana gets a more substantial piece of
the revenue. And she makes the crucial link: Louisiana can't continue to
support an industry that takes a real toll on the state's coastline without
making sure that its needs are met. 

"It is abundantly clear that allowing development to occur where inadequate
provisions are made for the protection of that development is
irresponsible," she wrote. 

That's entirely reasonable. It's also good strategy. Now is the right time
to remind Congress and the White House that Louisiana could be less
cooperative in the future. 

While the U.S. secretary of the interior could override the governor, the
result would be a lengthy legal battle, something that the federal
government would rather not go through. 

But for Louisiana, it's a fight worth waging. This state desperately needs a
substantial, guaranteed source of money to restore eroded marshes and
rebuild shattered barrier islands. The quest has taken on a greater urgency
following the depredation of Hurricane Katrina. Royalties from oil and gas
production on the Outer Continental Shelf -- which bring in $6 billion a
year -- are the logical source. 

The strong arguments Louisiana has made for boosting its share of this
revenue stream are still valid. If anything, Katrina makes them more
persuasive. 

There's equity: Coastal energy producing states like Louisiana aren't
getting a fair shake compared to inland states that get 50 percent of the
revenue from minerals extracted from federal lands within their boundaries.
Louisiana has an especially poor deal. While Texas and Florida get 100
percent of the revenue from production 9 miles in the Gulf, Louisiana has
control over only the first three miles and gets 27 percent of the revenues
from drilling from 3 to 6 miles out. After that, Louisiana gets nothing. 

There's also fairness: Louisiana has borne the burden of energy production
off our shores; 80 percent of production in the Gulf of Mexico is off the
coast of Louisiana. But that's come at a price. Oil and gas exploration has
carved up our wetlands, and that's one of the factors in the enormous land
loss this state has suffered. Using some of the money that the government is
taking in from production to address the resulting environmental damage just
makes sense. 

And then there's Katrina. The storm proved that Louisiana leaders haven't
exaggerated the state's vulnerability to storms -- a situation that's been
made worse by coastal erosion. People lost their homes and businesses, the
places where they play and work, worship and learn. They also lost their
lives. 

But it would be shortsighted to think the losses are confined to the Gulf
Coast. Our perilous geography also affects the nation's energy supply
because platforms and pipelines are vulnerable. A quarter of domestic
drilling takes place off Louisiana's shores. The rest of the country got a
taste of what that means for them when gasoline prices spiked after Katrina
and Rita. 

Any one of these arguments ought to be enough to persuade Congress to give
Louisiana what it has sought for so long: half the revenue from oil and gas
produced from 6 miles to 200 miles off its shore. 

Former Sen. John Breaux says the moment might finally have arrived for
Louisiana, and there are signs that he could be right. In the State of the
Union address, for example, President Bush talked about the need to reduce
dependence on foreign oil. That ought to mean looking out for states like
Louisiana that provide domestic energy. Helping the nation to be more
self-sufficient is important, but states might well hesitate if the toll
taken by production is too great and the rewards too paltry. 

The oil industry seems to understand that. Jeff Copeskey of Louisiana
Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association said that his organization hopes Gov.
Blanco won't have to make good on her threat. But he said the letter "puts
everyone on notice that the governor takes this very seriously." 

She should. Louisiana must have the financial means to save its coast from
the Gulf of Mexico's maw. But if the reasons for saving Louisiana don't
prove convincing to the rest of the country, the state has leverage. And its
leaders are ready to use it. 

-30-


The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
Louisiana's Fund for Louisiana's People
www.louisianahelp.org