Pooyie!

Pooyie 06.02.10

C'EST BON
We've had plenty of evidence this week of the dirty underbelly of the oil and gas industry. But, amid the Gulf carnage, a new economic impact study of drilling in north Louisiana's Haynesville...

PAS BON
When former Gov. Kathleen Blanco criticized the state response to the oil spill in multiple interviews last week, her comments sounded oddly familiar. In fact, it seems as if Blanco has been watching too much tape of the critics she faced...

COUILLON
Snorting crystal meth, exchanging lewd and pornographic e-mails, and accepting gifts from the companies you're supposed to be regulating...

C'EST BON
We've had plenty of evidence this week of the dirty underbelly of the oil and gas industry. But, amid the Gulf carnage, a new economic impact study of drilling in north Louisiana's Haynesville Shale commissioned by the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association - yes, yes, we know, not exactly an impartial party - served as a welcome reminder of the industry's positive impacts. New technology has allowed for safe oil and gas extraction from mineral-rich shale deposits. It's also been an economic boon for North Louisiana. Last year alone, the extraction activity of the seven oil and gas firms drilling most of the wells in the Haynesville Shale generated roughly $10.6 billion in new business sales and created nearly $5.7 billion in household earnings in 2009, according to the report.

PAS BON
When former Gov. Kathleen Blanco criticized the state response to the oil spill in multiple interviews last week, her comments sounded oddly familiar. In fact, it seems as if Blanco has been watching too much tape of the critics she faced back in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to the point that she has now taken to channelling them. Blanco may have meant well in her statements, but she as well as anyone should sympathize with Gov. Bobby Jindal right now, and know the disservice boilerplate political critiques can do in times of crisis. If Blanco could have addressed the situation in a way that didn't seem so tied to her own legacy, perhaps her comments wouldn't have rung so hollow.
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COUILLON**
Snorting crystal meth, exchanging lewd and pornographic e-mails, and accepting gifts from the companies you're supposed to be regulating. It's all just another day at the office at the Minerals Management Service. So say two blistering reports issued last week by the U.S. Interior Department's inspector general about practices within the MMS, the agency charged with regulating the oil and gas industry. The reports focused on two very separate MMS agencies, one in Colorado, the other in Lake Charles, with remarkably similar drug habits. In Colorado, an employee reported watching her boss snort meth off the top of a toaster oven. In Lake Charles, one employee insisted there was no meth in the office, but admitted that on at least one occasion he may have been feeling some lingering effects from the night before.