The Courier and Daily Comet
President Joe Biden's action last week to halt new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico will devastate Houma-Thibodaux's economy.
It also brings into focus the community's unenviable position at the epicenter of both climate change and efforts to reduce its damaging impacts, including rising seas and more-frequent and -powerful hurricanes.
It's clear that Houma-Thibodaux, which has shed thousands of jobs over the past seven years amid a prolonged offshore oil bust and the COVID-19 pandemic, can't accept an extended ban on new Gulf oil leases.
What remains unclear is why such a drastic step is either necessary or desirable.