Gulf Residents Ready to Jump-Start Drilling

Slowly but surely, Louisiana is recovering from the devastating blow it was delivered when BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded a year ago. Fishermen are managing to get by, businessmen are thriving – but oil workers are still hampered by the Obama administration’s decision to release only a small number of oil drilling permits.

FrumForum talked to two prominent Louisiana businessmen to get a sense of the situation in the state.

In New Orleans, the tourism has kicked up, the business climate is steady, and seafood sales are recovering well. “It’s just wonderful. Some cities have golden ages at different times, and this is certainly one of them [for us]… we still have a lot of problems, but we’re dealing with those problems. While most of the country is suffering from malaise or distress over the economy, our tourism is way, way up,” New Orleans businessman Bryan Wagner told FrumForum.

“The economy is between good and very good,” Fenn French, another New Orleans businessman, told FrumForum. “You don’t see businesses failing, our unemployment rate is below the national average.”

On the coast, in small fishing hamlets like Venice, Louisiana, the locals are still reeling from the twin disasters of Katrina and the oil spill. BP is dragging their feet on paying damages, but their contracts for cleanup work have helped.

The improving market for Gulf seafood has also helped. Shrimp, crab and fish, being mobile, were able to avoid some of the most toxic consequences of the oil spill, and demand for these are expected to rebound this season. The oyster fields are not expected to rebound so quickly.

But in the view of those working in the Gulf, the refusal to issue new permits is at least as disastrous as the oil spill itself. “Fishermen have had their share of suffering, but the ones who are continuing to suffer right now are the oil workers,” said Wagner.

Unemployment along the Gulf in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, which between 2006 and 2008 bounced between four and six percent, was 9% in January.

And while the Obama administration’s moratorium on drilling has been lifted, there has been little alleviation in the financial pain facing oil workers. The Obama administration has been very slow to issue permits for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving many oil workers still looking for work.

“The oil patches – they’re dead over there, because there are no permits to drill. Drastically higher employment over there [on the coast],” said French.

But French has an optimistic outlook on the outcome. “Once we get the BP money and get back to drilling, I think we [Louisiana] are going to be in really good shape,” he said.

The message is clear: for these Louisiana businessmen, the best days are ahead – with the memories of the oil spill fading, it appears the Bayou State is rebuilding for the better.

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