The President announced his executive order on Wednesday concerning Oil and Gas leasing in line with his policy of addressing climate change. The pause or moratorium as some call it is intended to allow time for officials to review the impact of Oil and Gas drilling on the environment and climate. The announcement was quickly attacked by the industry, those related to it and especially in Louisiana by the same political leaders who attacked President Obama's moratorium after the BP blow out in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 rig workers and damaged the environment to the tune of billions of dollars.
Their talking points are old news, jobs will be lost, Louisiana will suffer, its a threat to national security, energy cost will be much more expensive, etc, etc, and etc. They disregarded the life of those 11 rig workers and their families and said the moratorium would be a disaster. But the fact is the Obama administration got it right and on his watch the U.S. became the worlds leading oil producer. The Oil and Gas industry did not miss a beat As published in a New Orleans Advocate article dated 1/27 by Timothy Boone, his chart shows the industry employment has been greater on the democratic watch of Clinton and Obama since 1990 and the lowest employment took place on the republican watch of Donald Trump and the employment drop on Trump's watch has been dramatic according to the chart.
And to those who are still trying to sell the fairy tale that the current huge drop in activity and employment in the industry is due to the pandemic is full of it. The price Louisiana and its oil and gas workers are paying for the present slump is due to several reasons. (1) The U.S. recession that officially began in February 2020, before the pandemic. (2) Oil prices collapsed because of a drop in demand. (3) A surplus of oil and gas in the world market. (4) increased production. (5) A miscalculation by the industry because of greed and (6) New energy technology that came on stream. The meltdown began on Trump's watch and he and his administration had no economic plan or policy to create jobs or keep the economy working. In fact Trump himself took credit for the drop in the price of oil.
President Biden's plan is to create jobs like all democratic administrations do. And the oil and gas industry does better on their watch than on the republican watch, especially oil and gas workers in Louisiana. The oil and gas industry and its workers did better on Obama's watch even with the BP moratorium. And Trump revised or eliminated a good many regulations put into effect after the BP blow out which Trump said would spur more drilling and production. Yeah, right. The scare tactics by the industry and Louisiana's political representatives have been proven to be just that, scare tactics.
The industry, Trump and Louisiana's elected officials should answer for the industry slow down that has lost thousands of Louisiana jobs over the past 4 years. Biden's plan is being attacked in its infancy so a judgement of its success or failure will be known at a later date. Mean while what the industry and their allies never tell the public is at this very moment, the industry has thousands of acreage on leases they have never fully developed yet and the Biden pause does not even affect future drilling on those leases.
Trump left office with the worst job creating record since the great depression of 1928 and oil and gas industry jobs are not the only jobs lost. The sad fact is Trump and his party had no economic plan or policy to keep the economy moving forward. All they had was a tax plan that gave corporations like the oil and gas industry a 14% reduction in their corporate tax rate. And that does not include the $40 billion given to them as subsidy. Does any one really think they are deserving of that?
And that really says it all.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
Note: View my previous commentary dated 7/22/2011 titled, Drilling Offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico: Facts And Nothing But the Facts. It tells the facts of how the industry and its workers do better under democratic administrations.
