The Times-Picayune June 05, 2010

Dear Mr. President:

As you visit us today for the third time since the Deepwater Horizon started gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the people of Louisiana have questions that must be answered.

Obama Louisiana VisitDavid Grunfeld / The Times-PicayunePresident Barack Obama checks for tar balls washed ashore at Port Fourchon Beach last Friday. The President visited the Gulf Coast of Louisiana to assess the latest efforts to counter the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.We're already reeling from the loss of thousands of fishing industry jobs. We now could see an estimated 20,000 oil-services jobs vanish due to your six-month federal moratorium on deepwater exploratory drilling. That could do even greater damage to the economy than the well-chronicled fishing industry losses.

Louisianians understand the imperative for improved safety on drilling rigs. The carelessness that caused the disaster, the fumbling response by industry and government, and the damage to our waters and our coast must never recur, here or elsewhere.

But we need to know what you are prepared to do to prevent catastrophic damage to our battered economy.

It is not clear, Mr. President, why it will take six months to determine what went wrong on Deepwater Horizon and how to remedy safety deficiencies. The joint hearing by the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service already has highlighted several existing tests and safety procedures that might have prevented the blowout. There have already been nearly a dozen oil spill-related hearings on Capitol Hill.

In announcing the mission of the White House oil spill commission this week, you said, "We owe all those who've been harmed, as well as future generations, a full and vigorous accounting of the events that led to what has become the worst oil spill in U.S. history." Fair enough, but the commission's work must be focused and efficient. And the panel ought to include a resident of Louisiana, with firsthand knowledge of our economy.

We also need to know, Mr. President, whether you support legislation to give Gulf states our rightful share of offshore oil revenues now instead of in 2017. These are vital resources for our imperiled coast. During your visit last week, you did not publicly take questions from Louisianians. A local reporter's question about the revenue-sharing proposal earned a "we'll get back to you"-response from a White House spokesman. There was no followup.

Your visit is appreciated, Mr. President. But visiting Louisiana is not the same as listening to us and answering our questions.

When you were here on May 2 you talked about the possibility that the oil gushing from BP's well could "jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home." It is doing exactly that. Now we need you to keep the damage from getting any worse.

Much has been written about Americans' loss of confidence in their government and about the disaster's collateral damage to your administration. But ultimately, the administration will be judged on what is within its power, including your ability to assess the physical and economic damage to our communities and to ease their suffering.