CL – Coast officials urge Obama to lift ban
WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the Gulf Coast are working together to lobby the administration to speed up permits for offshore drilling in shallow water and to lift the moratorium on drilling in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico.
“This ban hurts everybody,” Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., said on the House floor Thursday. “We stand united on the Gulf Coast to support good-paying jobs.”
Boustany and other Gulf Coast lawmakers, including Mississippi’s senators, say the administration’s policies could cost the region’s already fragile economy thousands of jobs.
The policies “further intensify the economic struggles felt by so many in the Gulf,” said Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi. “The livelihoods of Gulf Coast residents have been hit hard enough by this tragic oil spill, and they should not have to suffer another blow by the actions of this administration.”
Environmentalists applaud the drilling ban in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
ClarionLedger
7/24/10
Magnolia Tribune
