An oil and gas industry executive will head the state Department of Natural Resources under Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, who also has tapped a college vice president as the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s next director and a former National Guard colonel to lead the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Tyler Gray, the corporate secretary for Placid Refining and a past president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, will head the Department of Natural Resources, Landry announced in a statement Wednesday.
Jacques Thibodeaux, a combat veteran who retired from the Army National Guard as a colonel and went on to serve in the U.S. Marshals Service, will head the GOHSEP office. Thibodeaux works as the director of emergency preparedness for the city of Thibodaux.
Neal Fudge, an assistant deputy director for GOHSEP, will be Thibodeaux’s second-in-command, Landry announced.
Meanwhile, Susana Schowen will head up the Louisiana Workforce Commission. Schowen, who previously served in the workforce development division of Louisiana Economic Development, is the vice president of education for the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, Landry said.
“Today, I am proud to appoint such well-qualified, committed, and knowledgeable people to head GOHSEP, DNR, and LWC,” Landry said. “I look forward to the great work they will do for folks across Louisiana.”
GOHSEP helps the state prepare for and respond to emergencies ranging from natural disasters to power failures. The Louisiana Workforce Commission is a branch of the Department of Labor that helps job seekers and administers unemployment compensation.
The Department of Natural Resources, which will be renamed the Department of Energy and Natural Resources effective Jan. 10, regulates the use of oil, gas and minerals in the state. In recent years, one of that agency's major challenges has involved plugging the state's many abandoned oil and gas wells. The department also is responsible for permitting carbon capture and sequestration projects.
In a statement, the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association applauded Gray's appointment.
“This appointment marks the start of a new era for our state’s oil and gas industry," the statement said. "(Gray) has worked closely alongside LOGA over the years, and we know that he will be an incredible asset for our industry."
Yet some environmentalists raised concerns about whether someone with close ties to the oil and gas industry should be in charge of regulating it.
Matt Rota, senior policy director at Healthy Gulf, said he worried it would be difficult for such a leader to "be impartial when it comes to weighing (environmental impacts) against economic benefits for oil and gas companies.”
In a statement, Gray said he will take a balanced approach to the job that will not be biased toward any particular outcome. As the Department of Natural Resources' next secretary, he will aim to modernize the agency and make it more responsive to the state's needs, he said.
Others were optimistic about his leadership. In addition to his work for the oil and gas industry, Gray sits on Gov. John Bel Edwards' Climate Initiatives Task Force.
In that role, he has sometimes raised concerns about whether that panel's proposals would harm the oil and gas industry. But Kimberly Reyher, the executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, said Gray's "engagement in that process is notable."
She is hopeful the next administration will carry on with the task force's work, she said.
“It’s important the oil and gas industry be part of the solution to our coastal management," Reyher said. "We all share in the risk to losing the wetlands that protect us from storms, and to rising sea levels and increasing storm activity linked to climate change."
