LA parish leader: 'We are being used'
Port Fouchon, Louisiana (CNN) - A Louisiana parish leader who was shown around the world last week alongside President Obama as he visited the Gulf coast now tells CNN "we are being used" by the White House to promote its energy agenda.
"I think he has an agenda." LaFource Parish President Charlotte Randolph said in an interview Thursday. "And this is certainly working into his agenda Right now we are the poster children for alternative energy. He can point to us and say this is why we need to move on to alternative energy."
Randolph spoke to CNN after an event at which she joined a host of Louisiana officials to criticize the administration's six month moratorium on deepwater offshore oil drilling.
"The other morning I heard he was looking for some butt to kick. What he doesn't realize is that he is kicking our butts right now," Randolph said. "We can recover from all the storms we have had in the past. We are managing the oil. We can't over come this overriding issue this moratorium now."
Randolph, who was with the president as he toured oil damaged coastal areas of her parish last week, said she shares the president's goal of shifting more and more to alternative energy sources.
"But we need to transition to it and its going to take a long time to get there," she said. "So lets be realistic and continue this process. .. Don't penalize the entire industry. Don't paint it with a broad brush and say everyone is evil out here. These people are my friends. These people are my neighbors. I know that they care about the environment. … Be realistic about this. You're hurting people."
"Yeah, I think we are being used to push their agenda," she said.
The sad thing is that they are shooting themselves in the head everytime they think Oil is the solution to the problems of the gulf.
Well at least you're starting to wake up to the fact that the president cares more about his agenda than he does about a few people in Louisiana.
Ya think? Never let a crisis go to waste....
I understand this guy's frustration but you can't have it both ways. You want the oil cleaned up but you also want to continue deep water drilling! NOBODY has figured out how to stop this gushing oil! You need to demand why BP is unable to follow through with "their plan" that was filed when the permit was issued. I hate seeing this tragedy happen as well. OIL COMPANIES HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO DO WHAT THEY WANT! WHY ISN'T THE CAP BEING LIFTED FOR DAMAGES! ASK VITTER, LANDRIEU, JINDAL????
What an ass! Only a two bit parish politician and she wants to destroy her own environment and politicize Obama's trip to Louisiana. I am so tired of the petty politicians who have been bought off by big oil for a pittance.
Just like Obama uses the easily fooled to do his bidding. He is a politician and is in Wall Street's and the union's back pockets.
He is definitely using this disaster to further his own agenda at the expense of the people of the gulf coast. The moratorium is lunacy in action and not a smart way to deal with the situation. They are not fully engaged with this situation and never have been. Lack of people on the ground, equipment in the water and no clear plan of action are proof of this. A flyover and photo ops do not an involvement make. The cap and trade issue will be another monumental mistake if it is passed. No one will be able to afford the electricity or fuel bills, plus the cost of every other product will skyrocket.
"We are managing the oil." Are you fricking serious? Then if LA is managing the oil, why don't we just have the Fed govt back off from helping out.
"Randolph spoke to CNN after an event at which she joined a host of Louisiana officials to criticize the administration's six month moratorium on deepwater offshore oil drilling."
The criticism is of the moratorium is about jobs loss...
1. The moratorium needs to happen so offshore oil drilling can be inspected for safety – for both humans and the Earth, or else we face the possibility of more disasters. Think of it as a product recall – there is something wrong, stop using it until it's fixed. - Hello????
2. If the moratorium doesn't happen and wells are not inspected and the same disaster happens again, think about the job loss then - Hello???
3. After all the damage this spill has caused, to both the Earth and the economy, the complaint that the moratorium will cost jobs makes me want to compare these people to Germany at the end of WW2. Would these people say ....
"Now that the concentration camps are liberated, where are all the German guards and death camp workers going to find jobs? Closing the concentration camps will cause high unemployment and is bad for our economy." - Hello???
I agree whole heartedly and CNN is carrying the propaganda flag for them like no other. Isn't it amazing how immediately after Senate House Committee leaders met yesterday to discuss our Energy plan, aka Cap and Tax, Pelosi makes her little speech to the press that the next mornings CNN "Propaganda Report" uses the environmental disaster in the Gulf to push the agenda and shows one barrier island intermittent cleansing as some type of success milestone for the Obama Administration. The liberal thought process is so out of whack it is amazing, how can you make BP responsible for worker's pay cut off by the Whitehouse? The lawyers in the Whitehouse are going to push BP into bankruptcy and then there is no cash generated from sales to pay for this disaster. Obama should be HELPING them to plug the flow, not trying to figure out how to kick their ass, there will be time for that over the next 20 years clean up effort.
They must think America is stupid, although I must agree, slightly over half of them are!
Someone needs to tell these local politicians (with their own agendas) that they can't have it both ways. You can't blame the government for not allowing drilling ( because of oversight needs to be tightened) and then, when they allow driling, blame the government for the spills. This leak happened because of an agenda by our government (local, state & federal) of letting the oil industry do as it wished. All BP cared about was profit and all the local government cared about was jobs–at any price. There probably will be more drilling in the Gulf but not before the regulations are tightened. And, whether the fossil fuel industry supporters like it or not, we need to move towards more alternative and safer/cleaner energy.
Some people never learn. Of course, my guess is that oil contributions to their campaign committees has something to do with their agenda.
"And this is certainly working into his agenda Right now we are the poster children for alternative energy. He can point to us and say this is why we need to move on to alternative energy"
What's your point? You ARE the poster children for why we need to get away from Oil and maybe eventually never have to clean up something like this again. If you don't feel like at least taking a few months to make sure that everything possible is done to prevent future incidents like this from happening while drilling just say so. Tell the Coast Guard you don't really care, you don't mind the oil in your marshs and please don't bother protectiing and cleaning up YOUR parish because the oil profits, and probably your own, are more important.
I certainly hope that the moratorium is about making sure that safety regulations are in place and enforceable, and that new drilling is done according to a higher safety standard than that which the oil industry decided suited them in 2000.
While I do believe the Obama administration will use this spill as a political talking point to push his "new energy economy" agenda, I don't think that we're holding off on building oil rigs because we're going to build wind farms instead. We're holding off because our current regulations are woefully inadequate and we need to not add to the problem by building more wells without the proper safety equipment.
The White House is using it as an agenda for alternative causes?
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! Are you looking out your door? This is the BIGGEST environmental disaster EVER!!!
Maybe BP can hire the deep oil rig workers to help clean up.
Haven't we learned from what is going on in the Gulf right now?\
How stupid can people be!
Parish leader, you are talking out of both sides of your mouth. Before the moratorium can be lifted we have to understand the cause. Do you want the President to push forward and bring more problems to the Gulf and do a Bush. Understandably so, this is a sad and trying time for the people of the Gulf but patience is a virtue.
big oil. has drenched minds and pocket books as well as beaches and oceans
A special prosecutor should be appointed to find out who in the white house refused the help offered by the Netherlands 3 days after the blowout. With their equipment 20 million gallons of seawater could have been cleaned every day. They also offered equipment to build up sand barriers to keep oil from the marshes and beaches.
The administration seems to be hiding behind the Jones Act, but the president can waive that act in an emergency just like Bush did after Katrina.
90% of this mess could have been contained if not for the white house, but the mess sure gives them lots of talking points to cram through their crap and trade bill.
It makes no sense that as the country struggles to deal with the worst environmental and economic disaster we've ever faced that we allow similiar deepwater rigs to continue to function. We don't need another potential disaster as we try to contain and fix this one. It won't take as long as many people think it will to move this country away from fossil fuels. A lot of the technology is already there for alternative energy. It's just been held hostage by oil company lobbyists who don't want their stranglehold on energy replaced. The oil rig workers who are out of a job right now should do what my parents did when I was a kid in the 1950s....move somewhere else in the country to find a job! I'm sure they could find work 'drilling' in the alternative energy market.
What a joke this guy is becoming doesn't he know he is the one being used by the republicans to point fingers lay blame and accuse everyone under the sun. I guess we can see who Jindal's replacement might be.
The State of Louisiana did not vote for the current President, they are lucky he is spending time with them. Everyone has their hands outstretched and talking about what the President and his Administration is not doing............now take a look at those red beet faces now in Louisiana now with their hands out for government assistance.
That's right, it is government assistance they are begging for and this will increase the budget, right you conservative Republicans. I don't hear you talking now about budget deficits! I am sure we will hear your rhetoric as soon as the gulf is restored.........now get on your knees and beg the President to help you and remember next election cycle who helped you get your lives back!
I wonder how much Ms. Randolph made from oil companies for her statements. "We are managing the oil."? I'm sure all the men and women who rely on fishing in the gulf echo that sentiment...
Of course he's letting the oil flow...to ruin the environment...to further his agenda...Obama's agenda is to kill the United States and reshape it into some sort of nanny state...led by dictator-type leadership that can spit on the Constitution; as they did with the healthcare plan...you liberals are responsible for the actions of this president and his administration..you have no one to blame but yourselves. This oil could've started to be cleaned up on day 2.....instead, obama's grandstanding...causing a stir...causing a crisis...all to get the country "mad," at BP and then he'll justify his energy agenda which will result in more job losses, higher prices and skyrocketing taxes....
ya think... of course you are being used !!! its all about a bigger picture for this president,,, but he has a job ,,,for now anyway...
Funny thing is if we had been exploring alternative energy like other countries maybe we would not need to drill as much and maybe, just maybe this entire situation could have been avoided.... But by all means blame the President... People need to wake up!