The Louisiana Independent Oil and Gas Association has created the "LIOGA Industry Relief Fund," which is intended to be used for housing, schools, roads and other immediate needs. More than $500,000 has been raised, and Don Briggs, LIOGA president, says it will increase substantially when a master plan is announced.
LIOGA's membership has a vested interest in getting locales like lower Plaquemines back up and running. "We have to get the area going again," Briggs says. "These are all our employees. If this shuts down, we're in big troubleâ?¦ Buras and Venice and some of those places down there were originally started by the oil industry."
And now it appears the industry may be the one to rebuild it as well. The companies that service oil activities along the eastern gulf shore of Louisiana in Plaquemines Parish, along with a group of gas gathering plants along the Mississippi River there, were either decimated or swamped by a storm surge when Hurricane Katrina made landfall in late August.
Where storage facilities once stood, nothing but concrete slabs remain. Storage tanks are completely submerged, save their domed tops. The levee system in southern Plaquemines is still lined for miles with debris ' chunks of wood, overturned boats, trailers, oil tanks.
It's a heart-wrenching sight for those who know the area well. Briggs recently joined state officials aboard an Air Force reconnaissance jet for a closer look at the devastation. "Oh my," Briggs said to himself, staring out of his window. "That's not good."
More than anything else, the trip strengthened his resolve to get the fund under way. The Venice area is a stronghold for oil and gas service companies, ranging from air transportation to general repairs. Until these businesses can get up and running, the return of the oil and gas industry will be daunting.
"Recovery will be a long and hard slope," Briggs says. "This base is so important to us."
Aside from commercial and recreational fishing, along with sporadic citrus farming, oil-related jobs keep Venice and the surrounding region along the mouth of the Mississippi River afloat, economists say.
Scott Angelle, secretary of the state Department of Natural Resources, says all eyes and ears are on this tiny community. More than 101 million barrels of gas originate from Plaquemines annually, resulting in a severance payoff of approximately $16.4 million for the state. "All of these services can be restaged, but we don't know how long it's going to take," Angelle says.
The price tag to rebuild is expected to be in hundreds of millions, and Briggs wants the LIOGA fund to help with everything from schools to homes, but the organization is still in the early stages of planning.
Briggs says a committee has been formed to oversee the process, and other organizational options are being explored. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the state's largest corporate lobby that has the same nonprofit status as LIOGA, teamed with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to oversee the fundraising and granting process for a similar fund the foundation is sponsoring.
Plans are also under way by LIOGA to fund infrastructure needs in the southwestern part of the state, indicating just how widespread the devastation has been for Louisiana.
As of last week, about 65 percent of daily oil production from the Gulf of Mexico was still closed off ' shrinking from 1.5 million barrels of oil daily to a little less than 1 million barrels. Additionally, more than 50 percent of gas production is down, the equivalent of more than 5 billion cubic feet per day.
While LIOGA is determined to do something about the communities impacted by these temporary shutdowns, there is nothing they can do about the high energy prices on the way.
"Your biggest reason for increased energy cost will be the simple fact that natural gas is shut in," Briggs says. "That's going to be major."
Briggs says several factors can also be pinpointed. He says a lack of alternative energy sources is not a problem in the face of increased heating bills, but rather a lack of alternative drilling sites. "We're being held up by not being able to drill in other areas, such as off the coast of California," he says. "If those bans were lifted, we could really make difference in this."
Another problem has been finding the appropriate equipment and compressors ' many of which have been in short supply ' to replace damaged units. Until these facilities can get back online, many in these little communities will be without jobs, Briggs says. "Right now, with the damage shared between gas processing plants and offshore structures, we're short about 100 compressors and it will take time to build all those compressors, and put them on," he adds. "But I expect they will come on in the same fashion as normal repairs will."
Repairs and damage are so widespread across coastal Louisiana that Briggs says it's hard to place a timeline on when all infrastructure will return to full capacity ' some segments may be fine in a matter of weeks, while other parts could take months or years.
"Different parts of it will be back up soon, while others will take longer," he says. "But our industry is one that will make it happen ' no matter what."
Jeremy Alford is a freelance journalist based in Baton Rouge. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Dallas Morning News and other publications. Reach him through his Web site at www.jeremyalford.com.
JUNE 16 This story in the Advocate tells us that the state Department of Education is taking a look at the Course Choice program. They're doing that because the legislature (probably responding to reporting by Tom Aswell, who does not work for the Advocate) ordered them to make sure that these private companies aren't signing six-year-olds up for high school Latin classes without their parents' knowledge or consent.
JUNE 17 Columnist James Gill writes about the recent complaint of death row inmates at Angola: it's hot as you-know-what in their cells, with the heat index topping 120 for months. Since we're not executing people anymore (Gill opines) then we should probably officially end the practice of putting people on death row. The prisoners, by the way, are not asking for cool breezes: they only ask for clean water and a temp that doesn't top 88.
JUNE 17 Here's blogger Ian McGibboney's take on the Baton Rouge plan to give bus tickets to homeless people who have a home with family who live far away. Taken from one point of view, it could be a good solution for some people. But McGibboney raises some good points here, including this one: Why not improve opportunities for everybody in Baton Rouge so these people can find the jobs they came to BR for?
JUNE 17 Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry talks here about the Zimmerman trial, but the real topic is the concept of a black man being more dangerous, somehow, than a white man in a fight. It is an interesting discussion, and one that may enlighten people who think that racism doesn't exist because nobody's keeping black folks from eating at the Woolworth lunch counter.
JUNE 17 Here's an interesting column from Baton Rouge Business Report's publisher, Rolfe McCollister, about anger against the government. It's brewing because of recent revelations about the IRS and the GSA, he says. It's readable, not just for the subject, but because of McCollister's collection of sources: Huffington Post, National Review and Wikipedia. That's a combo you don't see every day.
JUNE 17 In this American Press post, Jim Beam talks about the high school diploma track that lets kids who aren't interested in university get what they want and need out of high school. The diplomas get kids ready for technical school, Beam explains, and then he goes on to give some of the numbers. Some of these numbers might really surprise people who think technical school is second best. And, Beam adds, a college diploma does not guarantee anybody a job.
JUNE 17 The Washington Post reports here that OSHA is going to investigate the explosion that occurred last week in Donaldsonville, shortly after the other fatal accident in Geismar. As soon as the site is safe, State Police will be pulling out of the Donaldsonville plant to make way for OSHA investigators, the story reports. (Hey, here's an idea: why don't they go a couple miles down the road and figure out what happened when that massive sinkhole started sucking up land.)
JUNE 17 Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board of Supervisors in this post, taking a look at the many ways board members have served Gov. Jindal and not their university or their students. The board members are esteemed members of their fields, but can't seem to do anything but say "yes" to Jindal, regardless of the cost to LSU, Mann opines.
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