Analysis and discussion of issues that impact business

I know it's a controversial issue, but between the politicians and the lawyers, what's a business to do? According to the Dow Jones Newswires:

After months of escalating threats, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court against the U.S. Minerals Management Service to block an upcoming Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas lease sale.

If you want to know why gas prices are so high, you don't have to look solely to the Middle East or the oil companies.

Economic times are hard enough, without politicians with little or no business experience trying to run the show. In a nutshell:

The civil suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, argues that the MMS, which supervises offshore oil and gas production in federal waters, hasn't adequately assessed the environmental impacts of the lease sale, scheduled for Aug. 16 in New Orleans.

But those "environmental impacts" look a lot like dollar signs.

The move is the boldest in Louisiana's battle to secure a bigger share of the revenue generated by oil and gas produced in federal waters off its coasts. Louisiana officials claim that the state carries all the burden and gets few of the benefits from offshore production.

And just who exactly will get this "bigger share"? I'm pretty sure you can rule out Katrina victims.

With the Bush administration criticizing the Louisiana effort as fiscally irresponsible, state officials are calling attention to their plight by blocking a lease sale in one of the hottest energy producing areas in the country.

Government officials with cushy jobs are apparantly in no hurry to jump start the Louisiana economy.

While the oil and gas industry has generally approved Louisiana's goal of getting more offshore revenue, the lawsuit raises alarm bells for some, as it could hamper growth.

It's an equation that plays itself out repeatedly around the nation. Government involvement = slower growth. Plus look - the oil and gas industry is OK with giving Louisana more revenue. Sounds like a good thing for the citizens of Louisiana, just not the politicians.

One more problem gulf coast politicians seem to be making worse. Sad.