Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
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April 14
The Advocate on changes amid the pandemic such as unemployment, social distancing and education:
Until the other day, the unemployment insurance report from the Louisiana Workforce Commission was a routine bit of bureaucratic reporting, just a few thousand here and there.
And then this happened: “The initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending Mar. 28, 2020 rose to 97,400 from the week ending March 21, 2020 total of 72,438. For a comparison, during the week ending March 30, 2019, 1,666 initial claims were filed.”
Not April Fool’s, not a typo. That staggering change in the routine numbers indicates the profound economic impact of the national efforts, and those in Louisiana, to fight coronavirus infections.
Society’s costs of social distancing are not merely indicated by unemployment claims or the stock market but will also be seen in longer-term ways. How many students will receive an adequate education at home over these weeks and months? Almost certainly, in classrooms hopefully reassembling in more normal terms by August, there will be a large cohort of children starting a new grade behind - or in some cases, even more behind than they were in March.
These time-bomb effects on society are numerous. But what are the effects of prolonging this agony? If the many strategies called “social distancing” are abandoned too soon, the consequences of an even longer medical - and also, social and economic - crisis might look even worse than we can project now.
That is not simply a matter of lives lost, as vital as those statistics are. A second wave of infections, leading to more hospitalizations, may occur no matter what national authorities or such leaders as Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards will do.
But those infections will be even more costly if they prolong the economic dislocations we are now seeing. In other words, flattening the curve may be beginning to work now, but a new bulge in cases could follow a premature return to whatever normal life will look like next month.
The governor appears to be leaning toward an extension of stay-at-home orders into next month, whatever the president or other national figures might suggest.
We don’t like that and we don’t know anyone who does. It’s particularly hard on retail businesses. But absent a dramatic breakthrough on a vaccine or antibody tests that might allow a limited number of people to resume more familiar schedules, the reasonable option is to try to tough this one out, now.
If early indications are that the heroic efforts of the medical community are saving lives, this newspaper has also reported extensively about how hard this progress has been on practitioners. More ventilators isn’t the measure. It is whether hospitals can keep on their rounds doctors and nurses who are not worn out by the struggle.
Social distancing is hard but its end date should be weighed by the governor and other leaders based on the evidence, not only in models but in hospital wards.
Online: https://www.theadvocate.com/
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April 13
The American Press on oil and gas prices:
Among the many troubles plaguing our nation, the oil and gas industry troubles rank among our top economic challenges.
The worldwide coronavirus pandemic wasn’t bad enough, the uncalled for oil gut caused by the overproduction by OPEC and Russia are wreaking havoc in the oil and gas industry in Louisiana and other producing states.
The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association recently did a survey of the state’s industry and found the combined impact of the coronavirus shutdown of the economy and the oil glut “could prove to be potentially fatal for many independent producers and service companies and the thousands of workers they employ across the state,” according to Kati Hyer, director of social media and PR for LOGA.
The organization is made up of 450 companies across Louisiana.
“The survey shows that without some kind of emergency relief, energy producers may be forced to shut-in more than half of the wells they currently operate in Louisiana and potentially reduce their workforce by as much as 70% over the next 90 days,” Hyer wrote.
There are at present 33,650 oil and gas wells in operation across Louisiana, according to the Department of Natural Resources. The survey respondents showed that as many as 16,800 could be shut-in.
And according to LOGA, there are about 33,900 people employed by those wells. The survey also projected “more than 23,000 jobs, which generate $2.2 billion dollars in earnings annually, are at immediate risk.”
“Our members are doing everything they can to keep their doors open and protect their workers, whose livelihoods are at risk,” said Gifford Briggs, president of LOGA. “But if prices don’t recover above $40/bbl by June first, my members have told me it’s going to be devastating. We cannot do this alone.”
The U.S. Information Agency forecast April 7 that “the United States will return to being a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products in the third quarter of 2020 and remain a net importer in most months through the end of the forecast period.”
President Trump has suggested that OPEC and Russia cut production by 10 million to 15 million barrels, but the other countries involved don’t seem to be in a hurry to resolve the glut.
Being dependent on foreign sources of oil has had serious consequences for this nation in the past and the current situation does not look promising. Both our national and state governments need to take action to protect our domestic oil and gas industry, and the employees and consumers who rely on it.
Online: https://www.americanpress.com/
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April 11
The Houma Courier on bipartisan political cooperation amid the pandemic:
It’s safe to say that the coronavirus pandemic will not leave us, as a community, state or nation, the way it found us.
In addition to the souls we have lost, and will yet lose, to COVID-19, the outbreak and our reaction to it will change the way we live after it is finally conquered.
Sadly, livelihoods and businesses will have been lost. Similar outbreaks, even those not nearly as severe or deadly, will cause us to recall the days we now endure. And we will never get back the time with loved ones currently sacrificed to self-quarantine and social distancing.
We will also know a lot more about hand washing and hygiene in general, and our response to other public health emergencies will be better informed. And, in perhaps the least expected and most welcome of all possible outcomes, we will know the possibility exists for genuine bipartisan political cooperation.
You can find some examples in an Associated Press story in Thursday’s Courier and Daily Comet. For instance, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, longstanding political rivals, have provided a rare glimpse of how things could work in state government without the partisan rancor that has come to define so much of politics and public discourse.
Even at the federal level, Republican President Donald Trump has praised Edwards, something that is so rare as to be noteworthy.
Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy even shares some of the bipartisan sentiment. “I’m not going to second-guess Gov. Edwards,” he is quoted as saying. “We’re all working together.”
For his part, Edwards has resisted the temptation several other Democratic governors, as well as New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, have succumbed to in laying the blame for the pandemic squarely at the feet of the president.
To call this behavior unusual would be to understate it considerably.
Expecting such cooperation to become the norm, rather than the exception, after the pandemic has subsided is somewhat naive. But hoping the experience has moved the needle in the direction of genuine bipartisanship and in favor of the common good, especially in times of crisis, is not too much to ask.
If something positive can come out of what we’re all going through right now, let it be this example of what good government looks like.
Online: https://www.houmatoday.com/
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