Louisiana's royalty pains

Louisiana fought for decades to convince Congress that our state should get a share of the oil and gas wealth being mined off our shores. We're still waiting.

The Times Picayune is completely right.

For perspective, BP has spent $990 million so far on the oil spill, but just last year the federal treasury pocketed $5.74 billion in royalties (largely from offshore drilling).  Most of the new offshore activity is in federal waters (as the BP well is) and the royalties by and large go to the federal treasury.

Don't get me wrong -- BP is 100% solely to blame for the oil spill, but why should non-Gulf Coast states continue to profit immensely from the oil riches of the Gulf???

I agree with the Times Picayune.  It's time for LoUiSiAna to demand its fair share of oil royalties or at least that federal money be spent on cleaning up the huge mess and restoring Louisiana's wetlands.  Louisiana bears all of the risk while the fed govt reaps immense financial benefits. 

The nation benefits from the oil extracted by BP and others off our coast. But we are the state that bears the brunt of the oil industry's collateral damage. Thanks in large measure to the industry's crisscrossing pipeline canals, we're losing a football field of wetlands every 30 minutes and are more vulnerable than ever to hurricanes.

Read the full editorial here.