Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
___
Feb. 2
The Advocate on voting plans for Louisiana’s upcoming Congressional elections:
The coronavirus doesn’t take time off - at least not yet - and in Louisiana, voting doesn’t either. So here we are, with the November presidential election and its ugly aftermath still fresh, about to head to the polls again to elect two new members of Congress.
One of the vacancies is the result of former 2nd District U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond’s elevation to a big job in the Biden administration. The second owes to the tragic death of 41-year-old Luke Letlow, who was elected by 5th District voters but who succumbed to COVID-19 complications days before he was to be sworn in. Also on the March 20 ballot are a smattering of local offices and questions.
If the prospect of yet another election conjures the famous Yogi Berra line about déjà vu all over again, one aspect of the March primaries and April runoffs will be different: Voters will cast their ballots according to rules that both Republicans and Democrats like.
The rules themselves are not new. They are the same emergency measures approved by the Republican-dominated Legislature and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards for the summer presidential primaries, with marginally expanded absentee voting for those affected by the pandemic. They’re also the same rules that were in place for the November election and the December runoff, under orders from a federal judge after legislators tried to further restrict options and the governor refused.
The difference this time is that the plan by Republican Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin won overwhelming approval from the same GOP lawmakers who’d once howled over the thought of expanding mail balloting. Their objections echoed turbocharged rhetoric from former President Donald Trump alleging that absentee voting - which is generally more popular with Democrats than Republicans - leads to fraud.
They, like Trump, could provide no evidence that’s true, and both the summer and fall elections in Louisiana went smoothly. There was more mail balloting than usual, but the big numbers came from older voters who can cast absentee ballots even when there’s no public health emergency.
The results were noticed by all, which is why this time, thankfully, partisan politics didn’t impinge on the debate over how to provide safe and secure ballot access.
The rules themselves are reasonable, although they don’t cover every case in which the coronavirus might deter people from voting in person. Able to vote by mail are those with underlying medical conditions, under quarantine, experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, or caring for someone in quarantine or isolation.
Unlike the previous emergency protocols, officials did not add additional days for early voting. That’s too bad, because the option has proven popular and non-controversial, and because spreading voting over a longer period of time helps with social distancing.
In fact, as alternatives to in-person Election Day voting become more prevalent nationwide, more early voting seems like a good idea even when there’s no public health emergency. At least it’s something on which both parties can presumably agree.
Online: https://www.theadvocate.com
___
Feb. 1
The Houma Courier and The Daily Comet on the impact of President Joe Biden’s oil restrictions on Louisiana:
President Joe Biden’s action last week to halt new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico will devastate Houma-Thibodaux’s economy.
It also brings into focus the community’s unenviable position at the epicenter of both climate change and efforts to reduce its damaging impacts, including rising seas and more-frequent and -powerful hurricanes.
It’s clear that Houma-Thibodaux, which has shed thousands of jobs over the past seven years amid a prolonged offshore oil bust and the COVID-19 pandemic, can’t accept an extended ban on new Gulf oil leases.
What remains unclear is why such a drastic step is either necessary or desirable.
An analysis by the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association and American Petroleum Institute says an extended drilling ban for federal lands and waters would impact the Gulf Coast hardest, estimating 48,000 job losses in Louisiana alone by 2022. Nationwide, an institute analysis estimates such a ban would cost nearly 1 million American jobs by 2022 and put $9 billion in government revenue at risk.
Shutting down more than one-fifth of U.S. oil production will simply shift it, along with American jobs, overseas to places with fewer restrictions on the greenhouse gas emissions Biden’s executive order aims to reduce.
What is clear, however, is that the U.S. — and the world — must address climate change in a coordinated, structured and deliberate way. Biden deserves credit for recommitting the U.S. to the Paris Climate Agreement.
But even if all nations succeed at reining in oil and gas production to the levels they agreed to in the Paris accord, the International Energy Agency estimates oil and natural gas will still make up 46% of the world’s energy mix by 2040.
While oil is not going away completely anytime soon, neither is climate change. And its effects — already well documented in Terrebonne and Lafourche — will only worsen if major action is not taken to control carbon, methane and other greenhouse gases.
Nowhere is that more clear than in Louisiana’s $50 billion, 50-year master plan for coastal restoration and hurricane protection.
The latest plan’s best-case scenario is similar to the worst in 2012. A main reason is that it accounts for newer projections of sea-level rise caused by climate change. In 2012, scientists estimated seas would rise a maximum of 1.48 feet by 2100. The National Climate Assessment now estimates seas could rise as much as 4 feet by that time.
The most optimistic projections put the Gulf up against south Lafourche’s ring levee and Terrebonne’s Morganza levees within 50 years, raising questions about the systems’ ability to protect against flooding or withstand hurricanes. The worst-case scenario shows the levee systems could be overtopped by normal tides and significantly compromised by storm surges.
These are complicated issues with complicated solutions, but Biden’s indefinite ban on oil leases in the Gulf and on federal lands is excessive and should be withdrawn — or at least limited — in favor of a more-balanced and phased-in approach. If, as administration officials suggest, oil-and-gas jobs will be replaced by work producing renewable energy, officials owe it to the Americans whose livelihoods are at stake to explain when, where and how that transition will take place.
In the meantime, the handwriting is on the wall. Market forces and government intervention around the world will — and should — continue to reduce demand for fossil fuels. And that will happen regardless of whether anyone chooses to believe climate change is the major global disaster a consensus of scientists contend it is. The industry and its workers are innovative and determined enough to make that transition, but they will need to accelerate those efforts. Increasingly, they must see themselves as energy businesses that aren’t solely limited to oil and gas.
Online: https://www.houmatoday.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.