BATON ROUGE, La. – That David Vitter supports oil and gas drilling and aggressively pushes for federal approval of drilling permits is well-known. But the fact that Vitter employed hard-nosed tactics to support one particular gas well project in St. Tammany Parish is raising eyebrows, even among solidly conservative voters.
While the Republican gubernatorial candidate has publicly stayed out of the bitter and protracted fight over a potential fracking project by Helis Oil & Gas, a letter unearthed this week by Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany shows that Vitter urged the Army Corps of Engineers back in April to approve a Clean Water Act permit for Helis' exploratory well.
"It's a surprise because he's looking for our support and he's looking for St. Tammany Parish support," said Rick Franzo, head of Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany, a group that has joined forces with the parish council to sue the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to stop the Helis project.
"Me, I'm a conservative Republican all my life, and I have no problem with drilling, but it's in certain places, certain locations, and … the citizens of that municipality, that parish government, should have the ultimate decision to decide whether they want it in their area."
Franzo said Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany has more than 4,000 members, the vast majority of whom are conservative Republicans. Several reacted to the letter on the organization's Facebook page by saying they can't vote for Vitter's Democratic opponent, state Rep. John Bel Edwards, but still minced no words in blasting Vitter.
"We're disappointed," Franzo said.
What's more, campaign finance records show that Helis and the company's president, David Kerstein, each gave Vitter's campaign $5,000 checks just three weeks after he sent the letter.
"The fact that he got those $5,000 contributions is no big deal," said WWL Political Analyst Clancy DuBos. "Vitter has supported oil and gas for a long time. But the timing of those contributions could be called into question and, frankly, is a little suspect."
But Virginia Claiborne Miller, a spokeswoman for Helis, said the company never even asked for Vitter to go to bat for them.
"As far as we know, Helis did not reach out to him in any way to try to impact the Corps' decision," Miller said. "Helis has for years and years has been very transparent about giving donations to elected officials who support Louisiana's economy and the oil and gas industry."
Franzo, the vice president of a shipping chemical and equipment company, said Vitter apparently never considered the conservative argument that local governments should control their own land use and not be superseded by state or federal agencies.
Franzo's group and the parish government made that argument Thursday in the First Circuit Court of Appeal as they challenge the state's issuance of a permit to Helis.
Franzo also said it was hypocritical of Vitter to take the donations after pushing approval of the Helis project.
"I sat in a private meeting with David Vitter. It was on corruption and campaign finance reform … how that is the single biggest problem we have in Louisiana that can potentially create corruption -- the amount of money that's thrown at these different candidates from PACs and businesses," Franzo said. "And Vitter at that point in time was very supportive of that and he agreed, ‘That's how we got to change it. We've got to have campaign finance reform.'"
But Matt Jones, an attorney representing Helis in the appellate court case, said it's Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany that is being hypocritical.
"What they're really saying is, ‘We want oil and gas everywhere else and would like to benefit from it; we just don't want it here,'" Jones said.
Jonathan Henderson, an environmental activist who first reported the story of the Vitter letter and the campaign donations on his Vanishing Earth blog, also questioned the way Vitter pushed for Corps action on the Helis permit by threatening promotions for the Corps leadership.
Vitter states in the letter: "I can't support the transition or promotion of new leadership until I know that a constructive approach will be taken to address and resolve these serious problems." He goes on to list 10 projects where he requests Corps action, including the immediate approval of the Helis permit.
Henderson claimed that kind of threat to withhold salary increases for federal employees was equivalent to threats Democrats made against Vitter in a fight over the Affordable Care Act in 2013 – something Vitter called a violation of Senate ethics rules.
But a Vitter spokesman said the letter was a part of his usual efforts on behalf of Louisiana oil and gas projects, likening it to the time in 2011 when Vitter blocked a pay raise for former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar until Salazar's agency approved more drilling permits offshore in the wake of the BP oil spill. The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that was inappropriate in 2012 and issued guidance saying that tying a secretary's salary to a specific official act would be deemed improper.
WWL-TV asked Edwards for his position on the Helis project and fracking in general. A spokeswoman would only say that "Rep. Edwards has continued to recognize that energy production is important for our future and our economy. As governor he will balance that with the rights of local government to have access to the civil justice system."
When asked if Vitter's letter influenced the Army Corps of Engineer's decision to approve the Helis permit in June, Corps spokesman Gene Pawlik said, "Absolutely not," noting that the permit review process was well under way when Vitter sent the letter.
Helis is seeking to drill a traditional exploratory well outside Mandeville to determine if a hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operation is feasible.
