WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA), who was briefed yesterday by Federal On-Scene Coordinator Rear Admiral Watson, BP, MMS, EPA and NOAA at Unified Area Command in New Orleans, released the following statement tonight responding to President Obama’s national address:

“After receiving an in-person briefing at Unified Area Command, I was informed that we are in danger of losing tens of thousands of jobs permanently as companies are actively considering moving operations to other areas in the world.  Conspicuously absent from the President’s address was a plan detailing what to do to replace and retain the tens-of-thousands gulf region jobs that have been suspended due to the six-month moratorium that halted operations on 33 permitted deepwater wells.  With the nation struggling with a prolonged period of joblessness, immediate action is needed by President Obama to get the workers he displaced back to work.

“The politics of this crisis should not result in the permanent loss of tens of thousands of American 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.  The President faces a decision to either let these jobs permanently leave the Gulf Region resulting in irreparable economic harm or pursue an immediate avenue that can put these well-operators back to work without drilling in high-pressure zones that aren’t safe.”

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.”

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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