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Letter to the editor: Friday, June 17, 2005 (via Lex-Nex search)

The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
METRO - EDITORIAL; Pg. 6
State's support for Bush doesn't seem to matter

Re: "Bush opposes Louisiana's bid for oil royalties: Officials in shock as plan to restore coast takes a hit," Page A-7, June 16.

President Bush has just told Louisiana to go jump in the Gulf.

First Bush convinced the House to cut $20 million out of $37 million that was supposed to go to Louisiana's coastal restoration and flood control. Then, to add insult to injury, we read in The Times-Picayune that Bush is against giving coastal states up to $500 million a year out of royalties from oil and gas drilling off our coasts. Coastal states generate more than a quarter of the oil and gas consumed by the United States, but Bush opposes the Senate's plan to share that income.

Inland states now collect 50 percent of royalties from oil, gas and coal mined on federal lands within their borders, but apparently President Bush doesn't think Louisiana deserves the same treatment.

This is our president, Louisiana. We helped him win his second term in office, and this is how he thanks us. Our dwindling coastline just isn't Bush's concern. Nor is the prospect of New Orleans under 20 feet water.

No, Bush would rather spend $151 billion (so far) on the war in Iraq and give massive tax cuts to the wealthy than protect Louisiana from falling into the Gulf of Mexico.

David Morris
New Orleans

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