WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. questioned U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on the president’s Fiscal Year 2016 proposed budget request to strip Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states of revenue promised by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) and redirect revenue payments from Gulf Coast states.
Watch HERE and see excerpts of remarks below:
“Over the last three years.. the federal government has taken in $22.3 billion from leases in this area. And the four Gulf Coast states most affected by this have received $4 million—.02 percent.
“…The Gulf Coast states and the offshore waters have over the last few decades produced billions of barrels of oil, trillions of cubic feet [of natural gas], but with that there is a cost associated. And for us to support this infrastructure, we need to rebuild our coastline.
“… 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…”
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