Speaker: Oil and gas industry the fuel that powers state's engine

Marc Ehrhardt admittedly was preaching to the choir when he talked to the Rotary Club on Wednesday about the economic importance of the state’s oil and gas industry, but it served as a reminder that there are heretics out there.
Ehrhardt is the spokesman for Grow Louisiana Coalition, a fledgling organization that is working to keep industry jobs and revenue in Louisiana and to create a viable future for the state’s citizens.
Louisiana has a long and storied history in oil and gas but there are groups and organizations, Ehrhardt said, that are “debating whether we need the oil and gas industry anymore.”
Ehrhardt, spokesman for Grow Louisiana’s 4,500 members (a number reached since the coalition formed in February of this year), said the coalition’s objective is to keep the economic importance of the industry in the forefront of thought about the state and its citizens’ future.
That seems pretty obvious to residents of a city in which its largest private employers are directly linked to the vitality of the industry. But it’s not the case everywhere, Ehrhardt said.
He said the state’s future is closely linked with the energy sector, a sector which is already planning its future 20 or 30 years down the road.
Ehrhardt borrowed liberally from a study conducted earlier this year by noted economist Dr. Loren Scott in making his points about the energy industry’s importance to the state.
In St. Landry Parish, for instance, there are 673 professionals in the industry. That number does not include employees of the various associated companies -- suppliers, maintenance, etc. Those 673 had wages or $58.8 million, according to Scott’s study.
Statewide, there were 300,000 jobs generated by the industry, an industry that paid state and local taxes totaling about $5 billion.
To paraphrase Ehrhardt, there is no industry that makes a bigger impact in Louisiana, no industry that employs more people in high-paying jobs, no industry that contributes more to Louisiana communities, no industry more important to the state’s future than oil and gas.
He and his members want to keep it that way and overcome what some see as a lack of appreciation for the industry within the state.
The traditional laizze-faire approach won’t work anymore, coalition members contend, in the face of challenges from drilling opponents and from states desperate to snatch away some of the industry.
The industry’s critics voice environmental concerns; the industry counters by pointing out the various things it does to help restore habitat and coastline.