[StBernard] Devil In The Details

[Westley Annis]

Dear Friends - 

We recently got the good news that the Obama Administration is putting an
end to its job-killing moratorium on deepwater drilling.  While this is long
overdue, we are glad that the administration is finally reversing this bad
policy that was sending our Gulf Coast drilling rigs overseas to places like
Nigeria, the Congo and Egypt.

Of course, as we have learned from dealing with the Obama Administration
before, the devil is always in the details. Now, we must closely watch how
they implement their new drilling regulations and requirements on deepwater
drilling to ensure that they are not slow-walking the permit process, and in
effect, keeping drilling operations shut down in the deepwater by not
issuing drilling permits.

Indeed, they have already enacted what could be called a "de facto"
moratorium on shallow water drilling since June. Only 12 new permits have
been issued for shallow water wells since that time. This is dramatically
different from the average of 10 to 14 permits each month issued for shallow
water drilling before the deepwater drilling moratorium began.

We know harsh regulations from the federal government can interfere with
business growth and threaten jobs in our state. We will be closely watching
how the federal government implements its new regulations on deepwater
drilling to ensure safety is its absolutely highest priority, but that its
"arbitrary and capricious" shut down of deepwater drilling operations is in
fact over and our oil and gas industry can get the predictability from
government that it needs to succeed.

Sincerely,
Governor Bobby Jindal