When Do We Tolerate Socialism in Louisiana? When Oil Companies Benefit.
An oil platform sits in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo courtesy of Fieldwood Energy)
Has anyone in Louisiana been able to get a home mortgage without first proving their financial worth and then purchasing flood insurance?
Of course not. That’s because lenders need to make sure you could meet the debt — especially if the worst happens. It is just part of doing business in this region and the nation.
Well, unless you own an oil and gas company and want to drill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In that case, you can get this sweetheart deal: If you go bankrupt taxpayers will help pay to clean up any mess you leave behind, such as polluting wells and corroding pipelines — even if it means less money for their schools, hospitals, roads … well, everything else.
What’s that you’re saying? You’re a Louisiana taxpayer and you didn’t agree to this terrible bargain?
Then you better wake up, because that’s the deal the politicians you’ve been sending to Baton Rouge and Washington have been signing in your name for decades.
The latest example of this con is on view in a Houston federal court where, as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, Fieldwood Energy LLC has proposed abandoning as many as 1,715 wells, 281 pipelines and 276 platforms and letting you and previous owners pick up the estimated $9 billion tab for safely shutting down all that potentially polluting property.
But here’s the biggest gut punch for us suckers.
Read the rest of the article at The Times-Picayune.
