Louisiana delegation bristles at Obama’s comments on oil industry

Louisiana Republicans reacted strongly—and, not surprisingly, negatively— to President Barack Obama’s speech on energy Thursday, in which the president accused the GOP of trying to exploit rising gasoline prices to push for more drilling and continuation of tax breaks for oil companies. “Higher energy prices belong to him and his failed energy policies,” The Times-Picayune quotes Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, as saying in response. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, also took exception to the president’s comments, saying, “Pulling the rug out from underneath the domestic oil and gas industry was not the answer 10 years ago, five years ago, and it is not the answer today.” Obama acknowledged Americans are struggling with higher gas prices and said his administration is looking at every possible solution. But, he added, there are no “silver bullets” to a price surge caused largely by unrest in the Middle East and Iran’s threat to shut down a major oil and gas transport route. Read the complete story on the Louisiana delegation’s reaction—including views from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson—here. Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association, is also critical of Obama’s energy proposals in his response to the president’s budget proposal. “It is clear that his plan diminishes a thriving oil and gas industry, and he clearly does not desire to see America become truly energy independent,” Briggs concludes an editorial, which you can read here.