Cassidy says GOP supports oil and gas industry

U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, a candidate for U.S. Senate, told about 100 workers at New Industries this morning that the Republican Party wants to promote the oil and gas industry while the Democratic Party in Washington, D.C., is hung up on climate change.
Cassidy visited employees at New Industries on Railroad Avenue for a town hall meeting. Bill New, owner of New Industries, invited Cassidy to Morgan City for a fundraiser today.
Cassidy is running for U.S. Senate against U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans. The primary election will be held Nov. 4.
If Landrieu is re-elected the Democrats will continue to control the Senate, Cassidy said. Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, currently represents Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District.
New Industries provides steel fabrication services to the offshore oil and gas and marine industries, according to its website.
The economy will be a huge issue during the Senate race, Cassidy said. “Right now, our economy is having the hardest time creating jobs for workers like this, manufacturing jobs, fabricating jobs. Here is a place doing it successfully,” Cassidy said of New Industries. The rest of country can learn from what these kinds of companies are doing, he said.
“A lot of the regulations being put out threaten their jobs,” Cassidy said. The Environmental Protection Agency has put regulations to require Louisiana to decrease carbon emissions by about 40 percent, Cassidy said. Those regulations will raise utility rates and are estimated to cost the economy $8.6 billion and kill 36,000 jobs, Cassidy said.
The person in charge of implementing those regulations says she does not think they will actually benefit the climate, Cassidy said.
Obamacare is another big issue for the country, Cassidy said. Cassidy, who worked as a gastroenterologist for 25 years, has a passion for covering uninsured patients, he said.
However, raising others’ premiums by 30 to 40 percent is not the way to provide for those uninsured patients, he said.
Cassidy described himself as pro-life and a “Second Amendment guy.” Regarding marijuana legalization in some states, Cassidy said states have the right to experiment with legalization under the Constitution. Still, concerns exist surrounding the issue, especially whether legalization will lead to children getting easier access to marijuana, Cassidy said.
The flood insurance bill that recently passed Congress, the Grimm-Cassidy Amendment, was Cassidy’s bill, he said. “This is something that matters not just in south Louisiana but the whole state and, indeed, the whole country,” Cassidy said. The bill is a great improvement and takes care of some of the immediate concerns relating to flood insurance, but the bill did not solve all flood insurance issues, he said.