First impressions: Louisiana Oil & Gas Association President Don Briggs issued a response today to President Barack Obama’s nominations for a pair of top posts: Gina McCarthy for EPA administrator and Ernest Moniz for Secretary of Energy. Briggs says McCarthy “has had a fairly lengthy career with the EPA” and “will now have the opportunity to work with the oil and gas industry, unlike her predecessor.” As for Moniz, Briggs notes he “is coming from the education sector,” adding, “We hope he truly understands the oil and gas industry.”
Going up: Gov. Bobby Jindal was in Monroe today to join CenturyLink and city officials at a groundbreaking ceremony for a 250,000-square-foot expansion of CenturyLink’s existing corporate headquarters in the city. The project is expected to add 800 jobs in Monroe and 1,170 new indirect jobs in the greater Monroe area, state officials say. Complete details can be found here.
In the kitchen: When the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy tee it up on the first hole at Augusta National Golf Club for the 2013 Masters Golf Tournament, LSU alumnus David Toms won’t be the only one representing Louisiana. John Shackelford, a graduate student in LSU’s Department of Food Science, will work as a lead chef for the event, manning the kitchen that serves some of the tournament’s corporate sponsors. LSU has all the details here.
