The spin doctors of the oil and gas industry are at it again, says Save Lake Peigneur Inc. president Nara Crowley.
Crowley tells IND Monthly she couldn’t believe her eyes when she read a letter-to-the-editor in Wednesday’s Shreveport Times written by Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.
Briggs’ letter, Crowley says, fails to address any of the actual issues being faced by the hundreds of residents living near Lake Peigneur, located in the rural areas of Vermilion and Iberia parishes.
In Wednesday's letter, Briggs claims the Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish and 1980 disaster at Lake Peigneur are unrelated. He also criticizes the failed legislation introduced by state Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, during this year’s Session to make it mandatory for companies AGL Resources to conduct an environmental impact statement before Lake Peigneur’s underground caverns can be used for storing natural gas. Briggs describes Mills’ bill as being a “touch overboard.”
Also left unexplained by Briggs is the bubbling at Lake Peigneur, which Crowley says has been going on for years, nor does it answer questions about aquifer contamination, which is what happened in Assumption Parish during an accident several years ago.
Crowley says she knows first-hand the powerful grip groups like Briggs' LOGA have over the state's lawmakers, and how unscrupulous they can be when spinning an issue.
Crowley says the day Mills' bill went up for a vote by the Health and Hospitals Committee, she was almost certain it would pass. But the legislation somehow died after a last-minute discussion between lawmakers and officials from LOGA and AGL Resources.
"The committee then changed their mind, even people who we had assurances from changed their vote," Crowley recalls.
Nevertheless, she says a new bill is in the works that will be introduced next year. In the meantime, Crowley says she'll be waiting to see if her response to Briggs' gets published by the Times.
"We don't get too much help, so I really am hoping my letter gets printed so people don't think everything Mr. Briggs wrote is truth," adds Crowley.
Click here to read Briggs' letter to the Shreveport Times.
For more information on Save Lake Peigneur Inc. click here and here.
MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
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Posted by: Don Briggs on Thursday, October 11, 2012, 14:57 “That Sinkhole Thing”!!! What a condescending thing to say!!!
Say that to my friends that have lost their homes and property in Assumption parish. That Sinkhole Thing as Mr. Briggs calls it, is a disaster! Mr. Briggs is a lobbyist & is paid by the oil & gas industries. Lake Peigneur Vermilion Iberia parishes has bubbling now, & the cause is not known. Mr. Briggs fails to write about the expert testimonies about use of the Chicot aquifer, water wells going dry around Lake Peigneur. He fails to mention this. Most of the people around Lake Peigneur that live around Lake Peigneur are in the oil & gas industries and realize the importance of oil & gas. All Senator Mills wants to do is protect the people living around the Lake.
Why is AGL Resources, Jefferson Island Storage & Hub so afraid of an Environmental Impact Statement? Find out the cause of the bubbling in Lake Peigneur that is happening now before Louisiana has another Bayou Corne disaster. Stop saying this is about an event 30 years ago, when you were at some of the meetings in Baton Rouge & listened to the experts testify. No one from AGL Resources even questioned Lake Peigneur's experts.