It’s no secret that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is vehemently opposed to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Projection Authority-East’s lawsuit against 97 oil and gas companies. Governor Jindal, along with his Coastal Advisor Garrett Graves, have worked vigorously in the last few weeks to drum up as much opposition to the lawsuit as possible, with Graves appearing at many of the levee boards and other meetings expressing his disproval.
A long list of environmental groups have recently accused the governor of opposing the lawsuit because of the massive amounts of donations by the oil and gas industry to this political campaign. On Aug. 28, the groups, which include Levees.org, Global Green, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and Sierra Club, reported that more than over $1 million has been contributed to Governor Jindal’s campaigns.
The contributions date back as far as 2003 and include contributions from such oil and gas companies as Oil & Gas Rental Services Inc, Helis Oil and Gas, and Magnum Producing. The list included 230 contributions for Gov. Jindal’s campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives and the gubernatorial elections.
The health industry was the primary contributors to his campaigns, with the oil and gas industry coming in second. According to Louisiana Bucket Brigade’s director, “There is absolutely no other reason why Bobby Jindal refuses to make the oil industry pay for the coast it acknowledges it destroyed.”
Governor Jindal issued a press release on Aug. 28, in which he said there was an immediate need to restore the wetland and called for the quick release of the RESTORE act funds. That is money for projects to restore the wetlands that have suffered so much injury, but also to protect the production of oil and gas in the same areas.
Source:
bestofneworleans.com, “Oil money fuels Jindal’s opposition to lawsuit, groups say” Alex Woodward, Aug. 29, 2013
