Oil and Gas industry is about to rape Louisiana again!  

Every resident of Louisiana should be concerned about this situation because it will most likely impact you at some time or another.

For those that haven't heard....

Shell oil, for one, is about to build a new LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) terminal in the Gulf of Mexico off of the coast of Louisiana. The terminals themselves are not the issue here. In fact the LNG terminals, if designed and built properly, will actually help the area by providing jobs to Louisiana residents. Currently there are 22 LNG facilities proposed for the Western Gulf of Mexico.

The issue is at hand is that the LNG terminal being built by Shell and 6 to 7 other terminals that are in the works are going to use an "open loop" system. The other 16 or so proposed facilities in the western Gulf are being designed to utilize a "closed loop" system which is much more environmentally friendly.

Liquefied Natural Gas that is shipped to the U.S. needs to be warmed in order to be turned back into it's gaseous form. The open loop system runs Gulf seawater through a rack of radiators then spits the seawater back out in to the Gulf. The drastic temperature and physical damage of the open loop process will destroy millions of fish eggs and larva and plankton. One open loop LNG terminal alone can require up to 200 million gallons of Gulf water a day.

There has been much debate about exactly how many fish, crustaceans, fish eggs, larvae and plankton will actually be destroyed by the open loop system. The estimates provided on only Redfish losses on one single terminal range from 8,000 pounds to 1 million pounds a year. This is from one terminal mind you. Multiply these numbers by 7 additional terminals and the impact is astounding.

Shell claims it will not be economically feasible to build a closed loop system. If this is the case then how are the other 45 or so proposed closed loop terminals throughout North and Central America going to be economically feasible? How is a British Petroleum closed loop facility off the coast of Texas operating right now with a closed loop system? How is using 4% of each cargo of gas to power the closed loop system going to cause you to not turn a profit, yet everyone else can?

The real tragedy hear is that they are lying through their teeth. They will most certainly turn a profit regardless of which system is used at the terminals. Have you seen the price of gas lately? The truth is they know they can turn an even greater profit off of the Louisiana coast. They know that we are willing to be a slave to the oil/gas industry. Why? Because we always have been. They know that we are hungry for business and jobs and will do virtually anything to get them(She went to Cuba didn't she?). They know we are hungry for jobs because they are the ones that took a good amount away from the area in the first place. They know that we are a slave to their game because we let them dredge our marshes so they could get to their structures uninhibited. This is a direct contributor to the coastal erosion issues that we are facing now that are going to cost millions of dollars to fix, that we don't have and can't get from the Federal government much less the Oil companies.

Shell says that they have a plan to monitor and mitigate the damages caused by their "Gulf Landing" facility. How do you mitigate something like this? Can you force 1 million redfish to copulate and replenish the killed off population? Can you farm 1 million shrimp and replenish the Gulf with one of it's most important resources? So basically they are going to monitor the species they kill and how many. Then what? Pay off every person who is commercially dependent on the resources they are killing off for a greater profit?

Here is a list of numerous organizations who are opposed to any open loop systems in the Gulf.

* Alliance for Affordable Energy
* Association of Family Fishermen
* Atchafalaya Basinkeeper
* Delta Chapter, Sierra Club
* Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council
* Gulf Restoration Network
* Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission
* Louisiana Environmental Action Network
* Louisiana Bayoukeeper
* Louisiana Charter Boat Association
* Louisiana Coastal Conservation Association
* Louisiana Shrimp Association
* NOAA ­ Fisheries
* Terrebonne Fisherman's Organization
* United Commercial Fisherman's Association

I have personally written the president of Shell Oil in Houston and have yet to receive a response(trust me one was not expected). You can also write the Governor at:

Office of the Governor
Attn: Constituent Services
P.O. Box 94004
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004
Via FAX: (225) 342-7099

State Senetors can be reached at:

Mary Landrieu
724 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510

David Vitter
825-A HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510

Or you can just click these links to send your Senators a web form letter.

Landrieu

Vitter

If you think that these oil and gas companies are going to do more harm than good by their actions then let these people know how you feel and we may be able to make a differece and protect our already fragile Gulf of Mexico.

Edward T. Diaz III

Field Reporter, BaitNtackle.net

(Posted on 4/7/05 at 11:45 p.m.)