Marathon Pundit: Shallow-water oil workers overlooked by BP restitution fund; energy industry worried about new taxes

The BP oil spill may be capped, but there is no lid on the troubles facing the oil and gas industry and its workers.

As with most government intervention in private industry, the effects of the deepwater oil drilling moratorium imposed by the Obama administration is more extensive--meaning damaging--than anticipated.

From the Wall Street Journal, via Save US Energy Jobs:

BP pledged to pay $20 billion into a far-reaching restitution fund, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which is repaying waitresses for lost wages and condo owners for cancelled bookings, but rig workers are not eligible from funds coming from the facility. They must apply to a separate entity — the Rig Worker Assistance Fund, where BP pumped $100 million exclusively for workers who lost their jobs after the federal government enacted a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. The fund is limited, however, to those employed on one of the 33 deepwater rigs operating in May when the moratorium began, according to a fund spokesman. Shallow-water workers need not apply.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D, La.) recently asked the oil giant to allow shallow-water workers access to that money. But fund spokesman Mukul Verma said there are plans to add deepwater support workers to the fund's recipients early next year, and there probably isn't enough money to pay them and their shallow-water peers too.

BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said the company would respond to Landrieu’s request "in due course."

The Democrats, following the example of its leader, Barack Obama, voted "present" on many tax issues this year--punting them into the lame duck session and perhaps beyond. Which brings us to another potential gut-punch to the energy industry--more taxes, which has National Taxpayer Union executive vice president Pete Sepp quite concerned. "If there is one thing consumers and the industry could use," Sepp said, "it's a cease fire on new tax proposals on oil and gas."

Right on.

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