Small-Business Owners in the Gulf Share Similar Hardships
Tina Korbe /
Nearly a year after the administration first halted oil drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico, stories of economic hardship still surface, all with the same theme: The slow pace of permitting punishes all those whose livelihood depends on the oil and gas industry — even those who had nothing to do with the spill and whose safety records are impeccable.
Fergus Hodgson of the Louisiana-based Pelican Institute for Public Policy reports just such a story today. Writing in The Pelican Post, Hodgson profiles Cliffe Laborde, who, as the owner of the supply vessel company Laborde Marine, has felt the “permitorium” pinch firsthand. Even though the drilling moratorium has long been officially over, more than two-thirds of Gulf of Mexico deepwater rigs remain idle and, as a result, Laborde Marine’s service rates have fallen to less than half their prior levels.