Louisiana lifeline sinking into the Gulf

Here's an interesting article in USA Today that reminds us there are still lingering problems all along the Gulf Coast. In two days, Katrina caused more damage to the Louisiana coastal wetlands than would occur in 20 years of natural erosion. As a result, an important and already endangered economic lifeline is at risk:

Nowhere in Louisiana are the nation's needs and the local population's desires so closely aligned as on the crumbling asphalt ribbon that reaches to Port Fourchon at the state's southern tip. Fourchon supply boats serve the giant Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, 18 miles into the Gulf, which offloads crude oil supplies from foreign tankers, and 75% of all deep-water Gulf oil and gas drilling.

Last year, Hurricane Katrina temporarily shut down most Gulf production and forced the evacuation of the peninsular strip of land that LA-1 traverses, laying bare the nation's dependence on a remote road that connects 16% of all U.S. oil supplies to 50% of the USA's refining capacity. Stranded energy supplies sent consumer prices soaring. The aftershocks rattle markets even now, amid a new hurricane season.

Still, local leaders are struggling to raise $349 million in public and private capital to erect a 2-mile modern toll bridge and elevated 5.5-mile road to the port that would rise high above the boggy peninsula, preserving a steady flow of energy supplies and better supporting local traffic. The investment shortfall runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Combined with what, until now, was a lack of state and federal political will, the deficit underscores the obstacles to post-Katrina rebuilding efforts here in Lafourche Parish and across the Gulf Coast.

Each day, 1,200 heavy trucks barrel down this wisp of road, bearing replacement parts for machinery and groceries for offshore workers. The trucks also transport 20% of Louisiana's seafood - fish, oysters and shrimp - north from Port Fourchon for processing and sale. A 4-foot-diameter pipeline runs on much the same route, filled with crude.

The article also says that the highway is the only evacuation route for thousands of offshore workers and residents. Local officials note that offshore oil producers "pay $4.2 billion a year in royalties to the U.S. Treasury, an amount more than 10 times greater than the sum needed to theoretically rescue LA-1 and offshore energy supplies from southern Louisiana's swamps."

Perhaps Congress should fund this project, instead of the unnecessary $50 billion I-3 project, or the $500 million environmental disaster called North Shore Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, or that "bridge to nowhere" up in Alaska.