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A state court has issued a temporary restraining order against Firehouse BBQ restaurant in Denham Springs for its excessive non-compliance of his Phase Two mitigation measures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 throughout Louisiana, the Governor’s Office said.
The order prohibits the restaurant from operating in violation of an emergency order suspending their permit for violations of the Governor’s mask mandate.
“Defiance of the order to help keep the people of our state safe by this establishment is extremely reckless and irresponsible,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards in a press release.
The Louisiana Department of Health prioritizes education over such enforcement actions and that has largely worked in the response against COVID-19.
LDH and the State Fire Marshal received complaints on July 21 and July 22 indicating that the restaurant had posted notices on its front door and on social media saying it was not requiring the wearing of masks or face coverings by employees or customers.
An LDH inspection on July 27 confirmed the presence of the described front door sign and that Firehouse BBQ was not requiring employees or customers to wear masks or face coverings.
Upon completion of the inspection and receipt of the inspection report, the owner of Firehouse BBQ made it clear the restaurant would not be complying with the governor’s proclamations.
After giving the restaurant several opportunities to comply with the governor’s order, in the interest of the public’s health, on July 31 LDH ordered the restaurant to close immediately.

The Rotary Club of Morgan City

Louisiana oil and gas leaders are asking for federal help to get through the worst downturn the state’s industry has seen since the 1980s.
In April, an oversupply of oil combined with crashing demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic briefly pushed U.S. oil prices into negative territory for the first time ever. Traders were willing to pay to get rid of oil rather than figure out how to store it.
The price has rebounded to about $40 or so per barrel, but that’s not high enough to give companies confidence to invest, said Gifford Briggs, who heads the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. Recent reports indicate Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major oil-producing countries may increase production soon, which could bring prices down again, he said.
At last count, there were 29 active oil rigs in Louisiana, Briggs said, counting nine in the Gulf of Mexico. In a normal year, there would be between 70 and 100, he said. Louisiana’s many service companies depend heavily on wells being drilled to stay busy.
LOGA is asking Congress to consider using stimulus money to plug “orphaned” wells. Since 1993, Louisiana has plugged more than 3,300 abandoned wells at a cost of $128 million. But there are still an estimated 4,200 orphan wells remaining, and Briggs said the number likely is growing.
Beyond the environmental benefit, a federally funded program to plug orphan wells could provide work to service companies and allow them to bring laid-off workers back. But it would only be a short-term bandage for an industry that would benefit far more from a robust economic recovery that increased demand for fuel.
“We need people going to Disney,” Briggs said. “We need people getting on cruise ships. We need people traveling to conferences.”
The oil and gas sector historically has seen many cycles of boom and bust. The current slump reminds many people in the industry of the 1980s crash that devastated Louisiana’s economy, said Lori LeBlanc, vice president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association.
But she said the industry never really recovered from the last major downturn in 2016.
“The industry was in a downturn even before COVID,” LeBlanc said. “Everybody is just waiting for the demand to recover.”
LMOGA, along with the National Ocean Industries Association, is asking for two federal regulatory measures that it says would help the offshore sector. The U.S. Department of the Interior has the authority to grant companies relief from the royalties they have to pay the government, but it’s currently doing so on a case-by-case basis and the process is cumbersome, LeBlanc said.
The organizations are asking the federal government to grant temporary relief more broadly, which perhaps could be trigged by a certain oil price. They also are requesting a streamlined process to approve lease extensions for companies that aren’t currently producing on those leases, which they say would allow flexibility to delay expenses until the economic picture changes.
Mining and logging, the sector that includes oil and gas, gained about 200 jobs in Louisiana in June (the most recent month for which a breakdown was available), though it was down 6,700 jobs year-over-year, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission. The sector had lost jobs nine of the previous 10 months compared to the previous year, the LWC says.
The Houma and Lafayette areas, which are the regions in the state most heavily dependent on oil and gas, posted unemployment rates of 8.8% and 9.2% respectively in June, compared to 5.3% and 5.4% in June 2019.
Haynes and Boone, a law firm that tracks oil patch bankruptcies, counted 18 exploration and production company bankruptcies nationwide in the second quarter of 2020, the most since the second quarter of 2016. Those failures have a ripple effect on Louisiana’s many service companies.
Falling oil prices can be caused by geopolitics or economics, notes economist Stephen Barnes, who directs the Kathleen Blanco Public Policy Center at UL Lafayette and sits on the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference. This spring both factors were at play, as major oil-producing nations engaged in a price war and COVID-19 lockdowns sapped demand for fuel.
But the global political situation seems to have improved, he said. And demand for gasoline has bounced back to some extent, though the need for jet fuel has not.
Barnes doesn’t suggest good times are around the corner for Louisiana’s oil and gas industry, but things don’t look quite as bad as they looked a few months ago.
“I think we’ll be able to limp along until we can get to that broader recovery,” he said. “Limping along is a lot better than going under.”

A two-day total of 156 new COVID-19 cases, including 95 in St. Martin, and four new COVID-related deaths were reported in three local parishes Sunday by the Louisiana Office of Public Health.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations continued to fall.

The OPH no longer reports daily numbers on Saturday, so Sunday's report reflects statistics since noon Friday.

In St. Mary, 54 new cases raised the number of cases since the pandemic began to 1,597. Two deaths raised the toll to 54.

Another 95 cases were added to the St. Martin count, raising the total to 1,711. Two deaths there raised the toll to 45.

In Assumption, seven new cases make the total 585. The number of deaths remains at 20.

Statewide:

--2,653 new cases for the two days raise the pandemic total to 131,399.

--56 deaths raise the toll to 4,145.

--23 fewer people were in hospitals for COVID treatment Sunday, lowering the total to 1,383.

--Three more people are on ventilators for a total of 210.