Letter to Editor: Gov. Jindal signs SB 469

Governor Piyush Jindal signed Senate Bill 469 into law on June 6, 2014.

This legislation is governance at its worst: poorly written, for the worst of reasons, with no public benefit, and having potentially staggering unintended consequences. Governor Jindal, in his zeal to please the oil and gas industry and further his political ambitions, has abandoned the hundreds of thousands of Louisianians facing another hurricane season with inadequate storm protection and a disappearing coast.

Everyone involved in the passage of this bill owns the consequences, but no one is more responsible for shielding the oil and gas industry from accountability than Governor Jindal. He has undermined the efforts of everyone working to restore coastal Louisiana. Not only has he refused to ask the oil and gas industry to live up to their legal obligations, or contribute to coastal restoration in any meaningful way, he has actively blocked others from simply enforcing the law.

The result is that Louisiana taxpayers will pay for the oil and gas industry’s damage to our coast, if we can afford restoration at all.

– Steve Murchie
Gulf Restoration Network

This article originally published in the June 9, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.