Melancon not sweating Obama's anti-drilling assault
There are 68 days left until President George Bush has to vacate the Oval Office to make room for President-elect Barack Obama. And the new guy has promised quick change – a lot of it – so those 68 days promise to be loaded with one surprise after another. Already, the Democratic crown-holder says he plans to make an immediate impact by killing a few of the executive orders issued by the GOP administration of Mr. W.
Obama told reporters over the weekend that he is reviewing possibly lifting a ban on stem cell research and closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, where suspected and convicted terrorists are held. But Obama, who didn’t exactly have the most pro-oil record going into the race for the White House, is also considering halting the Bureau of Land Management from opening about 360,000 acres for domestic drilling.
Make no bones about it: Louisiana is an oil and gas state. Money generated from drilling and processing funds coastal restoration projects, road overhauls and other vital public needs. But Congressman Charlie Melancon, a Democrat who represents portions of Acadiana and endorsed Obama earlier this year, says there is nothing to worry about – yet.
For starters, the executive order Obama is reviewing involves environmentally-sensitive areas of Utah. It has nothing to do with Louisiana. Additionally, Melancon says Obama could prove to be more moderate on drilling and exploration once he takes office. You just never know. “You can always come up with some speculation, but my feeling is, my hope is, he won’t move to curtail action in the Gulf of Mexico or the Outer Continental Shelf,” Melancon says. “And this decision regarding Utah could be good for us because it’ll put more demand on Louisiana to produce.”
Obama's chosen chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has also taken an early stance on the ailing automobile industry and is already lobbying the federal government to provide some sort of aid. General Motors, the largest automaker in the United States, is reportedly losing more than $2 billion a month from its cash cushion and could soon face bankruptcy.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again, it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to go public this year.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
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