[StBernard] National Association of Counties Supports Limiting Drilling Moratorium to 30 Days

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Wed Jul 21 23:19:44 EDT 2010


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

National Association of Counties Supports Limiting Drilling Moratorium to 30
Days

Three key steering committees of the National Association of Counties (NACo)
on Saturday overwhelmingly approved a resolution to request the Obama
administration to limit the deepwater drilling moratorium to no more than 30
days. The entire NACo membership unanimously agreed to support the
limitation on Tuesday. The Obama Administration issued a new moratorium last
week to suspend deepwater oil and gas exploration until November 30. The
NACo resolution requests the ban to be lifted by mid to late August.

The Energy, Environment and Land Use (EELU) committee approved the
resolution 40-13 (75% majority) despite major opposition from environmental
county representatives. The Agriculture committee unanimously supported the
request, and the Public Lands committee passed the resolution
overwhelmingly. The Louisiana Police Jury Association proposed the
resolution to the Public Lands committee on behalf of the state. PJA
Executive Director Roland Dartez included recently released information from
the LSU School of Energy which revealed that 132 Gulf Coast parishes and
counties in four states will be directly impacted: 43 in Florida, 42 in
Texas, 32 in Louisiana, and seven in Mississippi.

"This action represents the national support we need to push for lifting the
ban," said Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph, a member of the
EELU committee. "NACo is comprised of elected officials representing 77% of
the country's population, and this disputes President Obama's assertion that
Americans are behind his moratorium. They understand that no business or
industry can survive a six month suspension."

In another victory for Louisiana, the EELU committee included support for a
greater share of Outer Continental Shelf royalty revenues as a part of its
permanent platform. President Randolph stated, "This is key because it sends
a message to Congress that this is crucial to coastal restoration. I salute
Marnie Winter, Jefferson Parish Environmental Director, for her persistence
and subsequent success in this inclusion in the permanent policy statement."

Lafourche Parish Councilmen Jerry Jones (District 1), Michael Delatte
(District 2), and Rodney Doucet (District 8) also participated in the
conference.
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