It all started innocently enough with an email to Treasurre Lynn Fitch by Port Policy Wonk Dan Norfleet:
Good Morning Treasurer Fitch:
Edison Chouest Offshore learned to create subsidiaries to be responsible for repaying the money when the jobs do not materialize. Failing to do this in Galveston cost the company $9 Million and could have cost tens of millions of dollars more: Louisiana offshore firm owes Port of Galveston $9 million. Anything built in Mississippi will not be an Edison Chouest project, but will be “LaShip” or “TopShip,” or “MyShip”—a newly formed corporation with no track record and virtually no chance of making good on its promises but trading on the past record of Edison Chouest. As usual, the MDA is being played. This is just another making-energy-out-of-mud project that will put Mississippi further into the economic hole.
Never one to waste a good link I clicked the link in Dan’s email and ended up liking the story so much that, despite it being several years old, Slabbed put it out on Twitter.1 It was recognized as a quality link in short order by Lee Zurik’s investigative assistant Tom Wright.
I’m glad you did, @SlabbedNewMedia! @LeeZurik
— Tom Wright (@TLWrightIV) August 13, 2016
The bottom line is the Chouest family well learned its lesson from its Galveston experience in 2006:
Could Topship end up in the same boat as Louisiana affiliate? ~ Anita Lee Continue reading “Letters to the Politicians and Others: A Good Longread”