Louisiana Needs to Protect its Oil Industry

June 24, 2020

Louisiana’s oil industry is hurting, and there seems to be no end in sight. Sadly, this is no surprise as Louisiana’s Governor John Bel Edwards has long opposed the state’s natural gas and oil industry. Just last month, Professional Pumping Services in Carencro and SMI Companies Global in Franklin were forced to file for bankruptcy. It’s likely that these companies won’t be the only ones – industry advocates are warning that more than half of the state’s producers could be facing bankruptcy.

Furthermore, the mining industry, which includes oil and gas extraction, is nearing 10,000 first-time unemployment claims since the start of the stay-at-home orders. It is time for Louisiana to start opening back up and allowing people to get back to work.

Multiple cities across the state’s workforce rely on the oil industry. Yet, time and time again, the state’s legislators have stalled bills that could help the oil and gas industry. Immediate action needs to be taken. Louisiana Oil and Gas Associate President Gifford Briggs believes that if change isn’t made, even more oil and gas companies, as well as the tens of thousands of Louisianan jobs they directly and indirectly support, will be lost.

Additionally, we must take bold steps to improve Louisiana’s competitiveness by addressing the government-sponsored coastal lawsuits and the highest severance tax rate on oil in the continental United States,” Briggs said. “Only then will we be able to turn the tide on jobs, investment, and families leaving our state to work in the oil fields of Texas and New Mexico.

For the sake of Louisiana in these challenging times, Governor Edwards needs to remember the significant contributions that the oil and gas industry makes to his state and its people.