Vistage Greater New Orleans Brings Home the Importance of Gulf Coast
New Orleans Vistage Members and Governor Blanco
What happened to New Orleans, and what happens to this region in the future, affects all of us, according to a group of Vistage members, one whom shared the podium at a news conference in New Orleans last week with Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
At the news conference Governor Blanco unveiled plans for the America's Energy Coast Initiative, designed to ensure a strong future for domestic energy supplies. It will focus on coastal restoration to help restore America's Wetlands along the Louisiana energy coast. The devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought along the coast and the ripple effect it had on the nation's economy has amplified the need for coastal restoration.
Appearing at the news conference with Governor Blanco and former Senator John Breaux was Pete Kazunas, a Vistage member and president of Coast Guardians in New Orleans.
The Coast Guardians is a group of 60 Vistage members from six Vistage groups in Greater New Orleans. They formed Vistage Greater New Orleans (VGNO), and then partnered with the America's WETLAND: Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana, a non-profit foundation.
"As Vistage members we formed the Coastal Guardians to spread the message across the country that we need to protect our energy coastline," said Kazunas, who also leads VGNO. "This is an extremely important issue for all Vistage members in the United States because it really does affect businesses everywhere."
The Coastal Guardians' mission is to educate Vistage peers and business leaders across the country about the need to restore the wetlands along the Louisiana coastline.
According to Kazunas, coastal restoration is vital to sustain the infrastructure that supports this nation's oil and gas production, to secure the nation's energy Independence and to support the overall health of the U.S. economy.
"The wetlands along America's energy coast support the infrastructure that fuels the nation's energy supply chain," he said. "Continued loss of this asset jeopardizes a significant share of this nation's oil and gas production and the health of the U.S economy, given its role as the artery for imports and exports for the country."
Louisiana's coast, an area known as America's Wetland, hosts the nation's strategic petroleum reserves and thousands of miles of pipeline which provide 30 percent of the nation's oil and gas. The coastal wetlands, which protect these critical resources, are disappearing and can jeopardize the nation's economic and energy security.
New Orleans' Members Organize to Accelerate Change
The necessity for the Louisiana Gulf Coast to rebuild and sustain itself isn't just their issue, say the Coast Guardians and VGNO: It's yours too. With a gallon of gasoline now over $3, they say it will only get worse, along with the overall health of the U.S. economy, unless action is taken to restore Gulf Coast wetlands. Doing this, they say, will require governmental action and a continuous revenue stream to fund a comprehensive coastal protection and restoration plan.
"Gaining a share of oil and gas royalties for the states that support this nation's energy production is the most effective means to secure the funds necessary to restore the coast," says Kazunas. In fact, Governor Blanco has committed that 100 percent of all oil and gas revenue sharing brought to Louisiana will be committed to coastal restoration and levee protection. Kazunas adds, "It is a classic pay-now-or-later issue. Had reasonable investment been made to coastal restoration over the past 10 years, then the significant funds now being required to just partially protect and rebuild the region could have been significantly reduced."
VGNO and the Coast Guardians are asking Vistage members across the U.S. to:
- Learn how their businesses are directly connected to America's Energy Coast and why it is vitality important to sustain this region. VGNO members are offering to meet with your groups and businesses to educate you on these issues.
- Think about disaster preparedness. Vistage GNO members dealt firsthand with what may go down as the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Every region has its threats, are you really prepared? VGNO members want to share their stories with you.
- Contact their Congressmen/women, and talk to them about the critical need to restore Louisiana's wetlands and to fund this initiative by directing a share of outer continental shelf oil and gas royalties to the regions that host America's energy supply chain (more on that below).
- Come up with creative avenues, as Vistage members always do, to elevate awareness of these issues, and to drive solutions.
When members of the Vistage groups in the Greater New Orleans area met to figure out how to mobilize and clean up after Katrina, they realized a primary truth: Unless they could build a business case based on "what's in it for you," they would be hard-pressed to get the kind of support the area needs in its rebuilding efforts.
Like most of us, they had been unaware of how pivotal their region was to America's economy. As they became fully aware of the magnitude of the issue, they rose to the occasion.
"When we tried to think of a project, as a Vistage group, we came up with a bodacious, crazy, way-out there idea: We would change the thinking of the Congressmen and Senators, and educate them to realize how important this region is to the economy of the United States," recalls Vistage member Duke Johns.
First, the group wants to educate Vistage members in the hope of enlisting their support with elected officials, and anyone else that can help.
"After all, the cost of oil and gas was the number-two concern of members who responded to the latest Vistage Confidence Index," says Johns. "If anything happens and the price of oil goes through the roof again, what would it do to your business?"
With that vulnerability in mind, Johns has compiled statistics that paint a picture of the region's importance to the health of the U.S economy:
Oil and gas: According to National Geographic, Louisiana and Texas have 25 percent of the nations refining capacity; 28 percent of offshore crude oil production and 19 percent of natural gas.
Transportation: 9,000 miles of oil pipeline; 6,000 seagoing vessels each year; 50 rail lines; 75 truck lines
Fisheries: New Orleans has the second-largest seafood industry in the U.S.
Manufacturing/Agriculture: Largest producer of salt; top 10 producers of cotton, sugar cane and rice. Produces 25 percent of the nation's petrochemicals.
While Louisiana shoulders much of the national energy burden, it does not receive a proportionate share of the revenues, says Johns. What happens to those revenues? According to the U.S. Minerals Management Services department:
- In 2005, the U.S. government collected $6.7 billion in royalties from offshore oil and gas leases, of which $5 billion came from offshore Louisiana.
- In 2005, Louisiana received only $32 million, less than one half of one percent of the federal revenues generated off its coast. That same year, Wyoming received more than $878 million in revenues.
"That inequity stems from how laws were developed many years ago," explains Kazunas, "The oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico have evolved so dramatically, as has America's thirst for energy, that the rationale for this inequity is no longer valid. There is a cost to protect domestic offshore energy and build America's energy independence. Today, coastal producing states shoulder all of that cost while the federal government takes home nearly 100 percent of the over $6 billion in royalty revenue the region generates. The only way to fund the re-establishment of America's energy coast line and protect the infrastructure that fuels this nation's energy pipeline is to directly funnel a reasonable share of the royalties back to the region."
A Foundation for Positive Action
To begin to address this problem, Vistage GNO developed a mission, constitution, objectives and by-laws to guide decisions and actions.
"Through our Vistage training we knew we needed to ‘begin with the end in mind' and develop a plan accordingly," said Kazunas. "We had lively debate, and despite our differences and hurdles, we formed Vistage GNO using the organization and management skills our business experiences and Vistage education taught us. We set forth an agenda and are now ready to make a difference."
VGNO's mission is "to ensure economic viability, business growth and quality of life to the Greater New Orleans area." Its objectives include:
- Comprehensive and realistic flood protection
- Preservation of heritage
- A metropolitan area appropriately zoned and esthetically appealing and clean.
- Economic system that supports existing companies and attracts new business.
"VGNO is set up to take on multiple projects." Kazunas elaborates. "Our research led us to the first initiative, the partnership with America's WETLAND to form the Coast Guardians. AW has a very similar mission and goal. VGNO brings to it the business connection which made for an excellent partnership. Saving America's Energy Coast is a cause worth fighting for!"
Ultimately, VGNO will be established as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, able to accept funding for other educational and improvement efforts. Kazunas explains, "Partnering with AW, which is an established 501(c)3 within the Greater New Orleans Foundation, gave us a quick and effective means to fund our educational initiative while still leaving VGNO in a position to take on other projects outside of the Coast Guardian effort."
How You Can Help
"The rebuilding is moving forward, but it's moving forward at a pace that really isn't acceptable to most of us in this region, or outside of this region." Kazunas explains.
"However, this region is no longer going to tolerate what it tolerated in the past. You can see it in the politics now, in the leadership in both the political and business arenas. The tolerance for corruption or parochialism is not there any longer. The need for action is the call today," says Kazunas.
Vistage GNO wants to supercharge rebuilding efforts, and suggests the following ways you can help:
- Invite Vistage GNO members to speak in your region.
- Call your Congress people and/or Senators to express your opinions about what should be done.
- If you are active in a trade association, enlist other members' support for America's Energy Coast.
- Assist VGNO and The Coast Guardians in getting articles written in your business trade journals and publications.
- Contact one of these Vistage members with your questions and/or ideas to lend support:
Peter Kazunas: (504) 941-4112
Duke Johns: (504) 734-1171
Bruce Thompson: (504) 838-3925
Fred Myers: (504) 734-1073
- Learn more at these Web sites: