President Obama's request for $35.8 million for ecosystem restoration in Louisiana that was part of his $30.6 billion water and energy bill was defeated by the republican controlled U.S. House on July 16. Instead of the $35.8 million, Louisiana will receive $1 million. Lets see, the last time I checked all of Louisiana's representatives in the U.S. House are republicans, except one. They really have clout with their party don't they.
Louisiana's elected officials who represent the state on both the state level and in the congress are out to lunch when it comes to taking care of the state's ecosystem. Little boy Scalise on the floor of the U.S. House held up a football and told his republican friends and said, I want to hold up this football to present that every single hour Louisiana alone loses an entire football field of land that's eroded away. That according to a Times Picayune article dated 7/16. What Scalise did not mention is that erosion is mainly caused by the oil industry operations in Louisiana.
Little boy Scalise, his party and Louisiana's elected officials are beholden to the oil industry and there in lie the root cause of the problem concerning the state's ecosystem. Scalise and his party want to cut everything coming out of the Obama administration so the party told him to go jump in the lake because you are one of us and gave Louisiana $1 million instead of the $35.8 million requested by Obama. The President has a better feel for Louisiana's needs than Scalise and his party.
The big failure to address the state's ecosystem restoration over the last 40 plus years is the oil industry operations, their failure to put the land back together like they found it and the state's elected officials who have failed to pass legislation to hold the oil industry responsible for their damage to the environment. Former governor David Treen had the answer in CWEL, but the state's law makers never had the character or courage to pass such legislation. They were always to busy doing the oil industry's bidding. Little boy Scalise could have introduced CWEL when he served in the state's legislature but he was to busy defending big oil. Scalise missed a chance to hold up that football before the Louisiana legislature when he was a member of that body and give that speech to them. But the little boy had no courage.
Now we see elected officials want most of the fines to be leveled on BP for the spill to be dedicated to Louisiana's ecosystem restoration. BP should be held responsible for the damage they caused but Louisiana should hold the oil industry responsible for the damage they caused for the last 40 plus years.
This is a major example how the oil industry and their lobby control our elected officials with campaign contributions. The other is the massive tax breaks doled out, once again by you know who, our elected officials. Has any one heard of a tax loop hole for the middle class, the forgotten few who are left out.
