Louisiana Hit Hard By Moratorium on Deepwater Drilling

29 August 2010

Oil workers from the Gulf Island Fabrication Yard listen to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal during a speech in Houma, Louisiana about the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, 24 June 2010

Both Republican and Democrat officials in Louisiana say the federal moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, put in place after the BP oil spill, is now that state's biggest problem. U.S. federal government officials and many environmental activists say the temporary ban on drilling is necessary to prevent further accidents. But people in the Gulf region are worried that many of the well-paying jobs provided by the energy industry might leave and never come back.

The recent oil spill left many fishing boats in the Mississippi delta and Gulf of Mexico coastal area idle.

But more people in Louisiana make a living from the oil and gas industry than from fishing and the moratorium has put hundreds of them out of work.

Waylon La Font and Mathew Cheramie are both residents of the Mississippi Delta who have worked on fishing boats as well as energy production.

They now fish on their own time because there is little work available, according to Cheramie.

"It is hard to find jobs and what work you do find is not guaranteed to be steady, you know, because with the economy already down like it is and they are putting this moratorium on us, it is just making things worse," he said.