From a release from 3rd District congressional candidate Jeff Landry:

Jeff Landry, the frontrunner Republican candidate for Congress in South Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District being vacated by Cong. Melancon, is calling on President Barack Obama to end and lift the drilling ban now.

“I was born and raised right here in South Louisiana. I know this area. We have survived hurricanes, we have survived economic downturns but it will be difficult to survive this devastating oil spill if it is coupled with a foolhardy policy of banning drilling in the gulf. A “moratorium” is just a ban under a different name. The President needs to stop this and allow drilling now,” said Landry.

“The moratorium on deepwater drilling is nothing short of a domestic attack on our economy. We need to grow our economy and help end America’s dependence on foreign oil and energy, this is a huge step backwards,” Landry added.

This moratorium suspends operations for 33 rigs at a cost up to $500,000 per day, per rig – resulting in roughly $16.5 million per day in costs for idle rigs, not to mention almost $1 million a day for supply ships and other supply industries.

“What the President refuses to understand is that these companies are not going to sit idle and allow the federal government to cost them billions of dollars – they will go elsewhere. Once these rigs are gone, they aren’t coming back for a long time. You can’t start and stop the Oil and Gas Industry like a car,” said Landry.

Thousands of jobs will be lost just from the rigs alone, jobs that create revenue for the state through income and sales tax; not to mention that for every one job offshore, four jobs are created on land. Wages lost could reach almost $300 million a month. “Louisiana needs these jobs; the people of South Louisiana need these jobs,” said Landry.

“It’s devastating enough that our tourism and fisheries, which are both major parts of the economy in South Louisiana, are begin destroyed by the oil reaching our precious coast, and now the President wants to kill a major part of our economy. It makes me sick,” Landry added.

Landry is also calling for the federal bureaucrats in Washington to immediately approve all permits and actions requested by Governor Jindal to protect the coast. Governor Jindal has asked the Coast Guard to approve a full 24-segment sand boom plan.

Landry said, “I agree with Governor Jindal that our entire coast is important. The President and his administration took weeks to review the request by Gov. Jindal to dredge for sand berms – he must act now on the rest of the plan – no more delays!”