Louisiana: No share, no drilling licenses

Petroleum News

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat who took office in January, plans to ask the federal government to share the $5 billion-plus it gets annually from oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico with the adjacent gulf states. According to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times, the state would use the money to help fuel programs that could rescue the disappearing Louisiana coast.

Blanco’s campaign – the first of several from the state of Louisiana over the years — would likely send more than half a billion dollars each year to gulf states.

If Blanco’s proposal falls on deaf ears in Washington — she hopes to discuss it with President Bush in February — her aides told the Times the state is prepared to begin rejecting new requests for drilling licenses and go as far as suing the federal government.