“With the nation struggling with a prolonged period of joblessness, immediate action is needed by President Obama to get the workers he displaced, by implementing a six-month moratorium on 33 wells, back to work,” Issa said.  “At a briefing yesterday at Unified Area Command, we were told that due to the moratorium, we are in danger of losing up to 46,000 jobs permanently should well operations be moved to other areas in the world.”

The moratorium was put in place based on a report from the U.S. Department of Interior in which the report claimed to have been peer-reviewed by seven experts.  Following the release of the report, five of the seven experts and the National Academy of Engineering came forward and publicly denied recommending or supporting the moratorium warning that the moratorium “will have immediate and long term economic effects.”

“There is no reason why the politics of this crisis should result in the permanent loss of up to 46,000 American jobs,” said Issa.  “Advocating a misguided cap-and-tax policy will do little to help address the urgent need to create and retain jobs.  In the State of Louisiana alone, where one-in-three jobs is related to the oil and natural gas industry, the moratorium will cripple their economy and leave thousands of families without income.  Why not pursue an immediate avenue that can put these well-operators back to work without drilling-to-tap?”

To date, more than 41,000 people have joined the Gulf Economic Survival Team (GEST) and signed the petition calling on the President to end the drilling moratorium.   The Louisiana Department of Economic Development estimates that the active drilling suspension alone will result in a loss of 3,000 to 6,000 Louisiana jobs in the first two to three weeks and more than 10,000 jobs within a few months.  Just the state alone is at risk of losing more than 20,000 existing and potential new jobs during a 12 to 18 month period.

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