Jindal calls for greater 'urgency' from Obama on ending drilling moratorium

NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) on Sunday blasted President Obama’s failure to revisit his ban on offshore oil drilling. 

“We don’t think the fact that they’re not doing their jobs in D.C. should cost thousands of Louisianans our jobs,” Jindal told reporters shortly after the president spoke at Xavier University in New Orleans. 

Obama’s speech on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina addressed the rebuilding of New Orleans and his commitment to clean up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but did not mention his administration’s decision to halt deepwater offshore exploration until Nov. 30.

The White House is reportedly considering an early end to the ban, but Jindal wants to see a “greater sense of urgency” from the president. “The experts all agree, we can end this moratorium before six months,” he said. “Let’s put our people back to work.”

Jindal said he was going to meet on Monday with former Florida Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who co-chairs the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission, to make that point. The first-term governor said he’s fine with increased inspections of the rigs off Louisiana's coast, but that “what we’re saying is, a one-size-fits-all moratorium doesn’t make sense.”

The Republican said the decision to ban further exploration in the wake of the explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig resulted from “confusion.”

“I don’t think they understood how the energy industry worked — I think they really thought that the rigs could simply flip a switch,” he said. “In the beginning, the administration suggested people file BP claims with unemployment claims. We made it clear that people want to go back to work.”

Jindal said he’s been in “constant contact” with the White House about the moratorium, as well as the ongoing hurricane recovery effort and the spill cleanup operation.

“I hope [they] now have a better understanding of what’s at stake, the jobs that are at stake,” he said. “Until they came down here, they didn’t understand the human impact in terms of the small businesses and jobs.”

The administration spent the week leading up to his trip to New Orleans touting the number of people displaced by the storm who have returned to the city since 2008, and the strides the schools have made.

But in his speech, Obama admitted more work needed to be done, and made a renewed commitment to helping the area recover from the disasters.

 “I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: my administration is going to stand with you — and fight alongside you — until the job is done,” he said.

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