As President Obama’s Oil Spill Commission met in New Orleans, Louisiana yesterday, they were met with an unexpected surprise. Drew Landry, a Lafayette native and singer-songwriter treated the commission to a rallying cry for the people of the Gulf, and some wise advice.
The Huffington Post reports: “”We definitely need other solutions, going green — whatever it takes, man,” Landry said, addressing commission co-chair Bob Graham, a former Democratic senator from Florida. “We’ve got nothing. We don’t want to be a welfare state. There’s no point in that. We’re hardworking people.”
Landry continued: “It feels like BP is in control of this deal, and the Coast Guard does what they want, you know, the press can’t be around. But more importantly, it feels like the people don’t have a voice in this this…It just sucks. Let’s just do the right damn thing. It shouldn’t be this hard. It shouldn’t take a committee to listen to people.”
Landry raises some important points. He asked the commission why volunteers who are ready and able to help are being turned away. He reminded them that “we’re not ready for hurricane.” He asked why the press is being stopped from reporting the story. But most importantly, he gave the commissioners sage advice: “It shouldn’t be about a policy change. It should be about what makes the most sense, how are we going to get these people…keep people working.”
As Heritage’s Robert Bluey reported last night, the Commissioners are already waking up to the unnecessary and disastrous consequences of President Obama’s drilling moratorium. Commissioner, and former EPA chief, William Reilly told the New Orleans Times-Picayune: ““I come to this experience with a much greater sense of the economic dislocation being experienced here than I had three days ago…It’s not clear for me why it should take so long to reassure oneself about [safety] considerations on those rigs.”