Landrieu ad highlights Gulf oil drilling fight

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) took credit in an advertisement released Thursday for ending the Obama administration’s Gulf of Mexico oil drilling moratorium that followed the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The television ad features Travis Borne, an oil rig servicer in the Gulf.

{mosads}“People in Washington have no idea what rig servicing’s about,” Borne says in the ad.

“They should come down here and see what Mary Landrieu’s been fighting for,” he says. “After the spill we had only 12 deepwater rigs going in the Gulf, but she took on the president to make it easier to drill. That’s lead to almost 60 rigs today and thousands of jobs.”

After the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in 2010, killing 11 workers, the Obama administration stopped all oil drilling in the Gulf.

Landrieu pushed repeatedly for the moratorium to be lifted and placed a hold on Jack Lew’s nomination as director of the Office of Management and Budget to force President Obama’s hand. The administration lifted the ban in October of that year after the Interior Department wrote new rules for offshore drilling.

Landrieu has focused much of her reelection campaign against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on her work for oil and gas, which is a major piece of Louisiana’s economy.

The ad goes on to argue that Landrieu, who has been chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee since earlier this year, is now in a powerful position to help Louisiana’s oil and gas interests.

“There has been no stronger advocate for Louisiana’s oil and gas industry than Sen. Landrieu and now, as Energy Chair, she is fighting even harder every day to increase oil and gas production and build the Keystone pipeline,” spokesman Fabien Levy said in a statement.

Landrieu’s statement also highlighted other work she has done to help oil and gas, like sponsoring a 2006 law to open more areas in the Gulf for drilling and passing out of her committee a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

The campaign said it is spending more than $100,000 on the ad, which is airing on cable and broadcast TV.