Following the realization that President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget proposal essentially strips Louisiana and several other
Gulf Coast
states of funding that was promised to them by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on Tuesday demanded answers from federal officials as to why revenue related to these programs has not been received.
“Over the last three years, the federal government has taken in $22.3 billion from leases in this area,” Cassidy said as he grilled Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. “And the four Gulf Coast states most affected by this have received $4 million. (That’s) 0.02 percent.”
The GOMESA legislation was designed to reimburse states along the Gulf Coast region for the costs associated with their coastlines and offshore waters supporting the production of billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.
“For us to support this infrastructure we need to rebuild our coastline,” Cassidy said.
The Senator concluded by asking Jewell, “There is a headline recently I read, ‘Does President Obama hate Louisiana?’ If you’re this person in that (flooded) home, that’s a question you’re asking when the money we were going to use to build back these wetlands is being taken away. Don’t you care about these families? It doesn’t appear that you do,” he said.