“Put our oil workers back to work, cleaning up the mess that by law these oil companies need to clean up” WTUL interviewed Cherri Foytlin of Idle No More Gulf Coast and Bridge the Gulf at the New Lease on Life rally and demonstration. Foytlin and about 300 allies disrupted the announcements of lease sales in the Offshore Gulf of Mexico. Bids for leasing these public lands for drilling are at their lowest levels in decades, and the industry is drilling in deeper and deeper water without any new regulations from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.Cherri spoke to us of her vision for just transition and her concerns of lacking a future for her children.”Louisiana can power this nation…we need to do it in a way that works with the systems of Mother Earth.” “Where I live will be underwater, I’m paying for a property I will never be able to give to my children.” “Tell the President of the United States that we are going to hold him accountable to what he said after Paris, we are going to keep 80% of fossil fuels under the ground.” Also included are public performances from local performers Cry You One (“Sinking” ), Hilton Kelly of Port Arthur, TX (“My Toxic Reality” ), and Jose Torres-Tama on the role of immigrant labor in the recovery of New Orleans.Scott Eustis is GRN’s Coastal Wetland Specialist
