Morning Bell: Let’s Get the Gulf Back to Work

Conn Carroll / August 04, 2010

Last night after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled his oil spill response bill, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) told reporters: “The key question is, whose side are you on? Are you on the side of Big Oil, or are you on the side of citizens in coastal communities?” Menendez does not represent any constituents who live on the Gulf Coast, so we should forgive him for not knowing that thousands of Gulf residents recently packed the Louisiana Cajundome to protest President Barack Obama’s oil drilling ban, a policy reinforced by punitive regulations in Reid’s oil spill legislation. If Menendez wants to know how actual “citizens in coastal communities” feel about oil, he should pick up a copy of Lafayette’s Daily Advertiser where Louisiana Oil & Gas Association President Don Briggs recently wrote:

There remains a public sentiment and misconception that companies operating the Gulf of Mexico are comprised of large transnational conglomerates, or “Big Oil” companies. This could not be further from the truth.

The president, media and policy makers in Washington all overlook the most important aspect of oil and gas operations in the deepwaters of the Gulf. Those most threatened by this moratorium are the independent oil and gas operators. Independents produce and drill nearly 50 percent of all wells and represent 70 percent of all lease activity in the Gulf of Mexico. (more…)