The Courier, Houma, Louisiana, on oil and gas supply

May 17
The Courier, Houma, Louisiana, on oil and gas supply:
Louisiana has a unique challenge: Make the rest of the nation realize how important we are to the nation’s supply of oil and gas and how vulnerable that supply is.
A group of local government and business officials got a good chance to address that challenge last week.
U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, brought four of his Republican colleagues for a visit to our region, giving them a chance to see where much of our nation’s energy is produced and giving locals a chance to share some of our unique challenges with some influential officials.
Scalise, who represents part of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, organized his annual energy tour and brought along Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Susan Brooks of Indiana, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Steve Womack of Arkansas.
Those are some important visitors, people who wield power in Congress but who might not know the needs and hardships of our region.
Scalise’s tour took them to an offshore site and allowed them to see the tenuous road linking the offshore oilfield with the nation it supplies.
Local leaders got a chance to plead their case for an improved La. 1 — a roadway that is a valuable daily conduit for workers and machinery and also the way in and out before and after any future storm might force an evacuation.
Greater Lafourche Port Commission Director Chett Chiasson summed up our dilemma to the visiting congressional contingent: “Let’s cut to the chase. Up to $10 billion of impact annually to the federal treasury. We need $320 million. That is not that much to ask. Then we can get the access very easily, and it’s not just the everyday access. It’s access post-storm. It is hurricane evacuation. It is coming back in to get production back online.”
That is no exaggeration.
La. 1 is a commercial lifeline for the oilfield, but in the event of an evacuation, it is an actual lifeline, carrying residents and workers to safety and allowing them to return to home and work after the emergency has passed.
We have made great strides in elevating and improving sections of La. 1, but it is a far-reaching project that has been addressed in segments. It is one of the greatest needs of our region, and it has been far too long in the making.
The challenge is to carry our message beyond our region, where it is so well known, to the people who can actually help us fix it.
Events such as the tour Scalise organized allow us to do just that.
We have a compelling message, one that the nation needs to hear so it can help us continue to help it.
Having our leaders in Washington reaching out to their colleagues to share the story and allowing those people to see it for themselves will be a valuable tool as these efforts continue.
Online:
http://www.houmatoday.com