Oil rig workers forced to job hunt after drill ban

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By CAIN BURDEAU

MORGAN CITY, La. - Mr. Charlie has seen the up and downs over the years in the oil patch off Louisiana's coast, but this could be the toughest slump of all.

Earlier this week, the steel rig stationed on the Atchafalaya River graduated what could be one of its last classes of workers prepping for the rigors of offshore life.

President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf has sent shudders across the coast's offshore oil industry - where no one knows just how extensive or long-lasting the damage to jobs may be.

Louisiana has long been indebted to the oil industry. Its thousands of good-paying jobs - offshore workers frequently earn $50,000 a year or more - counterbalance the low-wage tourism industry in the state's southern tier of parishes.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100617/D9GD7D7O1.html

[Jkid]

1. Louisiana's job market is a good example of a Two-tier job market.

The oil industry represents the the upper tier, while the service industry is lower tier. Now you're going to see workers trying to get a limited amount of service jobs.

Hope they saved at least 10% of their monthly income...

[Dappleganger]

7. It's like Florida being mostly tourist industry

with all service jobs depending upon that. No matter how you look at it, you're f u c k e d.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Seems like BP would have use of their services cleaning up their mess. nt

[alstephenson]

3. Kind of like the rust belt.

Time to find a new line of work, I guess.

[damntexdem]

4. Things are bad all over the Gulf.

And will be for years (decades?) to come.

[bobthedrummer]

5. Yet BP has had a large part in the torture and murder of organizers in Colombia

as the link below (from October 17, 1998 The Guardian) asserts.
Read it well DUers, it mentions a lot of dark things pertaining to today.

"BP hands 'tarred in pipeline dirty war'"

Colombia's military have been blamed for the murder of thousands of civilians. New claims link the British oil company to a security campaign supplying equipment to a notorious army unit and running a spy network of former troops.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1998/oct/17/1

[Downwinder]

11. BP the Chiquita in the oil patch. n/t

[brentspeak]

6. Obama's in a tough spot on this. He can hardly be blamed for imposing the moratorium

As the hearings yesterday showed, none of the deepwater drilling companies have legitimate contingency plans in the event of another spill or gusher. What if the same thing that happened with BP happens with Exxon a month from now?

On the other hand, the loss of so many oil rig jobs could be the final body blow to the region. Perhaps the moratorium could be amended to allow some drilling activities that would be less likely prone to disaster.

[AlbertCat]

8. In other news.... everyone fired or laid off in every profession forced to job hunt!

[Titanothere]

9. And when's the last time the govenment unilaterally shut down an industry?

I understand his need to show they're taking this seriously but this is essentially cutting of your nose to spite your face. Actually though it's a lot easier because it's someone elses nose, and they probably voted for Bush.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. When was the last time an industry fucked everything up so bad?

[superconnected]

10. So they think they should be able to go out there, take the chance of screwing up another rig and

costing even thousands MORE fisherman and others jobs?

I don't think soooo. They can get out there and clean the oil up. Calling for more drilling after it's cost so many others their jobs, sounds so irresponsible that it looks like oil company propaganda. They can switch jobs, be unemployed like everyone else affected by the oil spill, or move.

[Titanothere]

14. except fishing and tourism bring in a fraction of the money to the state coffers that oil does

[FLPanhandle]

12. Here's what I'd do if I was Obama

I'd setup a program to build thousands of underwater reefs (rigs are great underwater reefs). These guys can work building them and once the oil is stopped the ships can deploy them all around the Gulf in order to help rebuild habits for fish.

Puts people right back to work and helps kick start the recovery of the Gulf of Mexico. Pay them out of the BP account.

[mikelgb]

15. they should file claims n/t

[FBI_Un_Sub]

16. In 1988 when BP cut their renewable and green research

(most of which was done by outside "contractors") I was laid off. Never went back into "energy" -- made a new career in "information" (computer hardware).

[hollowdweller]

17. A hell of a lot of people lost their jobs when we passed NAFTA

Why is it that there is not public outrage when we outsource peoples good jobs but there is an outcry when we eliminate some jobs that are dangerous to the workers or the communities they are located in?

[TomCADem]

18. Bobby Jindal Says That Offshore Drilling Is Safe! End the Moratorium!

Jindal is Governor of Lousiana. I think many folks would defer to his expertise on the subject of offshore drilling:

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/bobby-jindal-bps-best-friend

Jindal's outrage is understandable and even admirable in the sense that he's not afraid to sound like an environmentalist. But the media's panegyrics have ignored Jindal's own weak response to the oil spill and his outsized role in promoting the kind of regulatory cutbacks and dangerous offshore drilling policies that are now wrecking Louisiana's economy.

In February, 2006, while serving as a member of the GOP-controlled US House of Representatives, Jindal introduced the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act. Passed by the House a few months later, the bill would have opened up the entire US coast to offshore oil drilling. States could override the law and ban rigs in their territorial waters, yet the law would let them share lease royalties with the federal government--a strong incentive to drill. Adjacent states would have little say in the matter (clearly a problem, given that BP's spill has marred several states' coastlines). On the risks of deepwater drilling, the text of Jindal's bill is comically pollyannaish:

(4) it is not reasonably foreseeable that . . . development and production of an oil discovery located more than 50 miles seaward of the coastline will adversely affect resources near the coastline;

(BP's Deepwater Horizon rig is located 50 miles from the coast, and of course would have devastated the Gulf even if it was further out to sea).

[Lorien]

19. They can join the thousands of unemployed fishermen, shrimpers, oyster

harvesters, tour guides, hotel employees, restaurant workers, gift shop owners and others effected by the gusher.