[StBernard] Lafourche Parish Press Release - Lafourche Residents Urged to Support Gulf Economic Survival Team

[Westley Annis]

Lafourche Residents Urged to Support the Gulf Economic Survival Team

 

Parish President Charlotte Randolph is urging Lafourche Parish residents to
wear and display red ribbons and sign the online petition in support of an
end to the moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling. The ribbons and
petition are part of the overall effort by the newly formed Gulf Economic
Survival Team (GEST). 

 

"This moratorium will affect us all for many years," said President
Randolph. "We need to stand up together as a region with one collective
voice, and the Gulf Economic Survival Team will allow us to do just that."

 

At the request of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Lieutenant Governor Scott
Angelle led the formation of the GEST. This team consisting of Chambers of
Commerce, business organizations and local elected officials in coastal
Louisiana have joined together to urge President Barack Obama and U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to take swift and appropriate action
on federal drilling regulations and end the drilling moratorium quickly in
an effort to save over 20,000 jobs in the region. 

 

The team's message is simple: The Administration's May 28 order, suspending
all existing offshore drilling in depths greater than 500 feet for a minimum
of six months, will cause significant harm to Louisiana's energy service
industry and hurt coastal communities already suffering tremendously from
the environmental and economic impacts of the BP oil spill. 

 

Lieutenant Governor Angelle said, "This moratorium, while well intended,
will negatively impact the entire economy of coastal Louisiana including the
traditional energy support workers and everyone from retail store owners to
store clerks, from auto dealers to auto mechanics, from restaurant owners to
restaurant workers, the housing and financial markets; and tax collections
for our school boards and local governments."

 

For more information about the GEST, visit the website at www.GEST.LA.gov
<http://www.gest.la.gov/> . You can also access the website and the online
petition through a link on the homepage of Lafourche Parish Government's
website, www.LafourcheGov.org <http://www.lafourchegov.org/> .

 

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