Louisiana's U.S. Representative Steve Scalise is the latest elected official to take a swipe at the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLF-PA-E) suit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies to restore damages to wetlands in Louisiana. In a Times Picayune article of July 2, Scalise is trying to demand transparency from SLF-PA-E concerning the lawyers hired to handle the suit and said the Levee Board could be forced to sell flood protection assets in order to pay for the suit.
John Barry, VP of SLF-PA-E said no flood protection assets are in jeopardy and that the whole point of the suit is to get the money needed to protect people from hurricanes. The choice really is simple: Protect oil companies from having to keep their written word and also obey the law, or protect people's lives and property from hurricanes. It really is that simple. Mr. Barry put Scalise in his place and shows how silly he really is.
What Scalise and other elected Louisiana officials are afraid of and see in the lawsuit is the state of Louisiana's failure to hold the industry liable for the destruction of wetlands, marshes and coastal area's. Scalise, like others who served in the state legislature while the damage was being inflicted were silent and done nothing to hold the industry accountable and all the while accepting campaign contributions from the industry. Scalise is still accepting campaign contributions from them.
Chris John in a "point of view" article in the Times Picayune of July 2 says the oil and gas industry has the states best interest at heart and trys to deflect the issue by talking about the industry's dollar investment and job creation in the state. John also said, we will continue to be part of the solution, a solution that puts Louisiana first, working together with the state leaders and the industry as a whole for a better sustainable Louisiana coast, not sitting in a courtroom for the next several decades. I believe the public knows pretty well that the industry continues to be part of the problem and not the solution.
That statement of John's is so self serving it belongs in a fairy tale. A note at the bottom of the article in fine print says John is President of The Louisiana Mid Continent Oil And Gas Assoc. In other words he is a mouth piece for the industry. What John did not say in the article is that he and his family owns and operates an Oil Field Trucking business in Louisiana that has been in operations for over 30 years. This writer worked in that industry for over 34 years so I can verify that.
Unlike President Obama's action concerning the BP blow out, Scalise and othr elected officials in Louisiana has turned their backs on the environmental damage done by the industry on state land and it has been an ongoing problem for many years. The lawsuit brings front and center just how beholden Louisiana's elected officials have been to the industry. Former governor David Treen had the answer to the problem with CWEL but our elected officials looked the other way, they wanted no part of it.
This commentary written by John Lucia
